Overview 1

Industry Profile 7

Initiatives in Information Technology Sector 17

Technology & Application Development 24

Human Resource Development 42

Infrastructure 48

Societies 56

National Informatics Centre (NIC) 79

Public Sector Units 102

Promotional Matters 104

Appendices 109

MIT-05cover 3/21/05 2:35 PM Page 2

Overview 1

Industry Profile 7

Initiatives in Information Technology Sector 17

Technology & Application Development 24

Human Resource Development 42

Infrastructure 48

Societies 56

National Informatics Centre (NIC) 79

Public Sector Units 102

Promotional Matters 104

Appendices 109

MIT-05cover 3/21/05 2:35 PM Page 2

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OverviewThe year 2004 marked a turning point in the histo-ry of global trade in services, with growing accept-ance of IT based global delivery model. With everincreasing availability of international bandwidthand powerful workflow management software, it isnow possible to disaggregate any businessprocess, execute the sub-processes in multiplecentres around the world, and reassemble it, innear-real time, at another location. This is drivingfundamental changes in the global IT services land-scape, vendors and customers are redefining thelevels of value creation in the industry. In the wakeof changing global service landscape, IndianInformation Technology (IT) and IT enabled services(ITES-BPO) continue to chart remarkable growth.

The Indian software and services export is estimat-ed at Rs. 78,230 crore (US$ 17.2 billion) in 2004-05,as compared to Rs. 58,240 crore (US $ 12.8 billion)in 2003-04. an increase of 34 per cent both inrupee terms and dollar terms. This segment willcontinue to show robust growth in future also.

Indian ITES-BPO sector industry continues to growfrom strength to strength, witnessing high levelsof activity – both onshore as well as offshore. Lastyear witnessed vendors moving up the value-chainto offer higher-end research and analytics servicesto their clients. Attrition levels also remained high,between 25-40 per cent, as demand for trained tal-ent outpaced supply.

As export revenues from ITES-BPO grew from US$ 2.5 billion in year 2002-03 to US $ 3.6 billion inyears 2003-04, an year-on-year growth of 44 percent was achieved. In year 2003-04, ITES-BPOexports accounted for over 27 per cent of the total

export revenue earned by the Indian IT-ITES indus-try. The value of ITES-BPO exports from India isexpected to exceed US $ 5 billion mark in the year2004-05.

The Indian IT success story has also highlightedIndia’s attractiveness as an investment destination– also beyond the IT sector. Another key impact ofthe global sourcing model popularised by thegrowth of IT-ITES has been the reversal of the braindrain – as people of Indian origin (who went to pur-sue careers abroad), as well as young expatriates,are now attracted to work in India.

Indian IT-ITES growth has had a significant multipli-er effect on the Indian economy. Apart from thedirect impact on national income and employment,the sector has also contributed to the growth ofseveral ancillary industries, a rise in direct-tax col-lection and an increase in consumer spend due tothe significantly higher disposable incomes.

The rapid growth of ITES-BPO and the IT industryas a whole has made a deep impact on the socio-economic dynamics of the country. The sector hasrisen to become biggest employment generatorwith the number of jobs added almost doublingeach year, has spawned a number of ancillary busi-nesses such as transportation, real estate andcatering, and has contributed to a rising class ofyoung consumers with high disposable incomes.

The industry’s contribution to the national econom-ic output has nearly tripled-from 1.2 per cent in theyear 1997-98 to 3.5 per cent in 2003-04. With thisgrowth, the sector is estimated to account for 4.1per cent of the national GDP in the year 2004-05.

1

OverviewThe year 2004 marked a turning point in the historyof global trade in services, with growingacceptance of IT based global delivery model. Withever increasing availability of internationalbandwidth and powerful workflow managementsoftware, it is now possible to disaggregate anybusiness process, execute the sub-processes inmultiple centres around the world, and reassembleit, in near-real time, at another location. This isdriving fundamental changes in the global ITservices landscape, vendors and customers areredefining the levels of value creation in theindustry. In the wake of changing global servicelandscape, Indian Information Technology (IT) and ITenabled services (ITES-BPO) continue to chartremarkable growth.

The Indian software and services export isestimated at Rs. 78,230 crore (US$ 17.2 billion) in2004-05, as compared to Rs. 58,240 crore (US $12.8 billion) in 2003-04. an increase of 34 per centboth in rupee terms and dollar terms. This segmentwill continue to show robust growth in future also.

Indian ITES-BPO sector industry continues to growfrom strength to strength, witnessing high levels ofactivity – both onshore as well as offshore. Lastyear witnessed vendors moving up the value-chainto offer higher-end research and analytics servicesto their clients. Attrition levels also remained high,between 25-40 per cent, as demand for trainedtalent outpaced supply.

As export revenues from ITES-BPO grew from US$ 2.5 billion in year 2002-03 to US $ 3.6 billion inyears 2003-04, an year-on-year growth of 44 percent was achieved. In year 2003-04, ITES-BPOexports accounted for over 27 per cent of the total

export revenue earned by the Indian IT-ITESindustry. The value of ITES-BPO exports from Indiais expected to exceed US $ 5 billion mark in theyear 2004-05.

The Indian IT success story has also highlightedIndia’s attractiveness as an investment destination– also beyond the IT sector. Another key impact ofthe global sourcing model popularised by thegrowth of IT-ITES has been the reversal of the braindrain – as people of Indian origin (who went topursue careers abroad), as well as youngexpatriates, are now attracted to work in India.

Indian IT-ITES growth has had a significantmultiplier effect on the Indian economy. Apart fromthe direct impact on national income andemployment, the sector has also contributed to thegrowth of several ancillary industries, a rise indirect-tax collection and an increase in consumerspend due to the significantly higher disposableincomes.

The rapid growth of ITES-BPO and the IT industryas a whole has made a deep impact on the socio-economic dynamics of the country. The sector hasrisen to become biggest employment generatorwith the number of jobs added almost doublingeach year, has spawned a number of ancillarybusinesses such as transportation, real estate andcatering, and has contributed to a rising class ofyoung consumers with high disposable incomes.

The industry’s contribution to the nationaleconomic output has nearly tripled-from 1.2 percent in the year 1997-98 to 3.5 per cent in 2003-04.With this growth, the sector is estimated toaccount for 4.1 per cent of the national GDP in theyear 2004-05.

2

The total number of IT and ITES-BPO professionalsemployed in India has grown from 284,000 in 1999-2000 to over 1 million in 2004-05, growing by over160,000 in the last year alone.

National Plan on e-Governance

The Government has recognized the potential ofInformation and Communication Technology (ICT)for rapid and all round development in general andtransforming governance in particular. For citizen-centric governance, it is imperative that benefits ofICT should be leveraged to reach the citizens withinshortest possible time, in a reliable and costeffective manner. Citizens want a government thatmeets their needs, that is available when andwhere they need it, and which delivers services tothem in a transparent way. By deploying ICT basedsolutions it is possible to provide government andother citizen-centric services to a much broadersegment of population at optimal quality, time andcost.

The importance of e-Governance has beenrecognized in the National Common MinimumProgramme which inter-alia states that e-Governance will be promoted on a massive scale.The 10-point agenda of the Minister forCommunications & Information Technologyannounced for growth of Information Technology inthe country, includes expeditious implementationof a National e-Governance Plan to bring abouttransparency in administration and to makegovernment functioning more citizen centric.

Three important elements of the National e-Governance Plan, which form the coreinfrastructure for effective service deliveryparadigm are Data Centres, State Wide AreaNetworks (SWANs) and Common Services Centres(CSCs).

For universal service delivery requirements, datamay be required to flow to and fro, seamlesslybetween a service delivery point (or a local StateGovernment office) located at Block level and aData Centre located at a Departmental office in theState or Central Government Headquarters. Thissituation would require a seamless, highly reliable,wide band communication network within theState and also across the States. Such Wide AreaNetwork should have inter-operability with

adequate standardization and security so thatgovernance goals for government-to-governmentand government-to-citizen needs are met. TheDepartment of Information Technology has givenpriority to establishment of State Wide AreaNetwork (SWAN) as an element of the coreinfrastructure for supporting e-Governanceinitiatives

The State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) would beestablished linking the State Hqrs right upto theBlock Hqrs. These networks would be connected tothe NICNET through appropriate interfaces in theform of Gateways to enable inter-state connectivity.The Departments and other Government agencieswould be able to carry out Government toGovernment (G2G) services and later Governmentto Citizen (G2C) services through SWAN.

Guidelines for technical and financial support forestablishment of SWAN, up-to the Block level witha minimum Bandwidth of 2 MBPS to providereliable backbone connectivity for e-Governancehave been announced on October 20, 2004 andissued to all States to follow while preparing projectproposals for establishing SWAN in the States.

The creation of dedicated service delivery outletsseparately by each department is neither cost-effective for the government nor convenient for thecitizen. Common access points combining centraland state government services with privateservices are, therefore, envisaged. TheDepartment, keeping in view the rural thrust in theCommon Minimum Programme of theGovernment, intends to promote enablingenvironment by establishing Common ServicesCentres in the rural areas to provide governmentand private services.

The World Bank Identification Mission completedits deliberations with various stakeholders ofNational e-Governance Plan and have indicatedpossibility of US $ 500 million financing for theNational e-Governance Plan over a period of 5years, of which US $ 100 million could be on IDAterms and the remaining on IBRD terms.

e-Readiness Index

The Department has commissioned e-ReadinessAssessment Study 2004 through the NationalCouncil of Applied Economic Research (NCEAR) for

3

the States and Union Territories. The report is likelyto be released in March 2005.

.IN Internet Domain Name

In order to bring about a substantially increasedproliferation of .IN Internet domain name, a new .INInternet domain name policy framework andimplementation plan has been formulated and thepolicy announced by the Government in October2004. The new policy seeks to remove therestrictions in the existing procedures impeding thegrowth of .IN Internet domain name registrations,and aims at adopting a liberal and market friendlyapproach to register large number of .IN domainnames. The policy has received wide acceptancecountrywide. As a result of implementation of thispolicy, about 75,000 registrations were madeonline in the very first week of its opening up topublic.

National Internet Exchange of India

The responsibility for implementation of the policyfor .IN Domain has been entrusted with theNational Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), a Section25 Company promoted by the Department ofInformation Technology in association with theInternet Service Providers Association of India(ISPAI).

As part of its another role to facilitate improvedInternet services in India, NIXI has already made itsfour exchange nodes operational at Noida (Delhi),Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and as many as 40ISPs have been connected with these nodes.Further, in order to address the problem ofexcessive cost of connectivity for Class B and CISPs operating in secondary cities, the Departmentis considering a proposal to set up, in partnershipwith the State Governments and ISPs as stakeholders, a second tier of NIXI hubs in a few selectedprovincial capitals.

Centre of Excellence in Wireless

Technologies

A Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technologies(CEWiT) has been set up in Chennai, with the seedcapital provided by the Department of InformationTechnology through Media Lab Asia, as a public-private partnership initiative to undertake research& development in the fast developing area offixed/mobile wireless technologies, and work oncreating newer technologies and solutions in the

area of next generation wireless communication.The intervention of CEWiT will not only address theproblems in last mile connectivity for cost effectivebroadband communication services, but will alsogenerate world class intellectual property to propelIndia to a global leadership position in this area.

Media Lab Asia

The Media Lab Asia (MLAsia) aims to research andinnovate developments in the areas of informationand communications technologies for the benefit ofthe poor and needy population. The MLAsia workswith the academic/research institutions, industry,NGOs, and government to bring these innovationsfor the benefit of the masses.

MLAsia organized four sector specific NationalWorkshops in Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi andKolkata in the areas of; - i) Cost effective ruralconnectivity ii) Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) for improving health care servicesin the remote areas by using telemedicine andinternet services, iii) ICT to improve educationdelivery and literacy, and iv) ICT for disabled. Basedon the outcome of the workshops, teams havebeen constituted to work out specific projects inthese areas.

4

Community Information Centres and

Vidya Vahini Programme

The Department of Information Technology hadtaken up an initiative to set up CommunityInformation Centres (CICs) in the hilly, far-flung andrural areas of the country to bring the benefits ofICT for socio-economic development of these areasby providing broadband connectivity. Based on theexperience of the Community Information Centres(CICs) in North-Eastern States, it was decided toset up 135 CICs in all the Block Headquarters ofJammu and Kashmir. In the first phase of thescheme, 60 CICs have been made operational byOctober 2004 and remaining 75 CICs will beoperationalised in the second phase by October2005.

A project to set-up 41 Vidya Vahini CICs in theGovernment schools of Andaman & Nicobar and 30schools in Lakshadweep has been taken up by theDepartment. The CICs would be utilized foreducation purpose by the schools and during the offschool hours the set-up would be used by thegeneral public to access citizen centric services.

The Department intends to set-up 328 CICs (95CICs at the block level and 233 CICs at village level)

in an entrepreneurship mode in Uttaranchal. StateGovernment would implement the project andmeet 10% of the cost of the project, and alsowould ensure interfacing of CICs with their SWAN(State Wide Area Network) and NICNET.

Indian Language Technologies

India is a multilingual and multiscript country. Thereis, therefore, a need to provide user friendly andcost effective tools, applications and contents thatenable access to ICT infrastructure in Indianlanguages. The Department is addressing theissues relating to linguistic data resource, contentcreation, language processing tools, and suchtechnologies as optical character recognition, text-to-speech, speech recognition, cross-lingualinformation retrieval, and machine translation inmulti-lingual environment. Standardization ofinternal storage codes, font codes, and lexicalresources formats has also been undertaken.Knowledge networking between resource centresand industry, and entrepreneurship in LanguageTechnologies are being promoted to achieve bestresults.

National Electronics/IT Hardware

Manufacturing Policy

The Department has prepared a paper on ‘NationalElectronics/IT Hardware Manufacturing Policy’. Thestrategy paper addresses issues on – Tariff policy,EXIM policy, Hardware Manufacturing ClusterParks, supporting R&D, marketing Made in India,inviting large Electronics Manufacturing ServiceCompanies to set-up Indian operations,development of semiconductor industry, labourlaws, patenting, etc. The Tariff and EXIM policymatters have been taken up with the concerneddepartments. The draft paper has been referred tothe National Manufacturing Competitive Council(NMCC) set-up to promote the manufacturing inIndia.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)

STPI acts as ‘single-window’ in providing servicesto the software exporters and incubationinfrastructure to Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs). During the year, the STPI hascommissioned its new centres at Durgapur andKharagpur in West Bengal, Imphal in Manipur andGangtok in Sikkim. With the addition of these fournew centres, STPI now has 44 centres across the

5

country. More than 5500 units were registeredunder STPI umbrella, out of which 4809 units areoperational and 4088 units are exporting. Memberunits of STPI have exported software of overRs.51,458 crore during the year 2003-04. Thesoftware exports from STPIs are likely to be aroundRs 66,000 crore during the year 2004-05.

Information Security

Information Security is assuming vital importancewith the wide spread of IT applications incommercial, strategic and other sectors in thecountry. The Standardization, Testing & QualityCertification (STQC) Directorate of the Departmenthas established Information Security ManagementSystem certification framework under which anumber of major IT industries and organizationshave been certified as per BS 7799 Standard.STQC has also certified overseas clients like Dohabank, Qatar, Vertex and Polaris, USA. In associationwith the Institute for Development and Research inBanking technology, STQC has also developedguidelines for Banking & Financial sector forimplementation of Information SecurityManagement System and has also taken the lead incertifying Banks for Information SecurityManagement System. Apart from certification,STQC has also been providing certified trainingcourses in the area of Information Security andPenetration and Vulnerability Analysis services.

Broadband Economy

A Report on India's Broadband Economy: Vision2010 was brought out jointly by the Department in

coordination with the CII. The Report has dealt withthe fiscal, administrative and technical issuesinvolved in the promotion of BroadbandConnectivity and made specific recommendationsfor achieving the target of 10 million subscribers bythe year 2010. The Internet subscriber basecurrently is 4.2 million. This study providedimportant inputs to the TRAI report on ‘BroadbandIndia : Recommendations on accelerating growth ofInternet and Broadband penetration’, which hasrecommended a target of 1.7% broadband access(about 20 million subscribers) and 3.4% Internetaccess (40 million subscribers) to be achieved bythe year 2010. Broadband Policy - 2004 wasannounced by the Government on the basis ofthese reports.

Review of Information Technology Act

An Expert Committee on Information TechnologyAct has been set up under the chairmanship ofSecretary, Department of Information Technologyto review the IT Act and propose appropriateamendments in the light of the national andinternational developments post IT Act 2000. TheCommittee comprises government officials,private experts in legislative matters and industryprofessionals. The Committee is expected tosubmit its report by March 2005.

PC Penetration

The Department of Information Technology hasidentified increase of PC penetration and internetutilization/coverage in the country; and growth ofdomestic software market as the thrust areas for

6

action during next 2-3 years. A Working Group hasbeen constituted with members from the industryand Government to examine issues related tothese areas and make suitable recommendationsfor action to the Government as well as Industry.

Online Election Results, Budget and

Examination Results

Online transmission of the Union Railway Budgetand the General Budget was facilitated throughNICNET for all over the country and was widelyused by the Media, industry and other agencies.The Doordarshan, other Media and Governmentagencies used the NIC election feed back forproviding live transmission of election results tothe viewers.

NIC also published results of various examinationsconducted by the CBSE, State Education Boards,Universities, Professional Entrance Examinations,Staff Selection Commission, Institute of Chartered

Accountants, etc., on its web server(http://results.nic.in). Facility to download admitcards for certain examinations directly from the netwere incorporated.

ELITEX’2004

Electronics & Information Technology Exposition-2004 (ELITEX’2004), an exhibition and seminar toshowcase technologies, products and servicesdeveloped under the aegis of the Department ofInformation Technology, was held during 26-27April, 2004 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Thetheme of the ELITEX'2004 was – ‘TechnologyVision : India in 2010’. This event provided anopportunity for close interaction betweenacademia, R&D institutions and industries. Threetechnologies developed by the Departmentinstitutions were transferred to industries forcommercialization and 16 new products/technologies were released during the Exposition.

7

Industry ProfilePolicy Measures

Information Technology has come to be recognized asa key-leveraging factor in the National Development.It has a profound effect on other industries inincreasing productivity and changing cost structure.Increasing dependence of economic activity oninformation, coupled with globalization of capitalflows, trade, manufacturing, etc., have ledGovernments all over the world to play a proactiverole in setting up and nurturing the development ofcompetitive Electronics/IT industry in their respectivecountries. The Indian Electronics and IT industry isone of the fastest growing sectors of the Indianindustry. India has the potential to develop andmanufacture Electronics/IT Hardware for the globalmarkets and gain higher global share besidesmeeting the country’s future requirement in theconverging areas of information, communication andentertainment.

The IT and Telecom hardware industry will beoperating under a zero duty regime from the year2005 onwards as a result of implementation ofInformation Technology Agreement (ITA-1) of WTO. Anumber of steps have already been taken to meet thechallenge of zero duty regime in 2005. Tariffs havebeen rationalized on raw materials, parts, other inputsand capital goods to make the manufacturing in thecountry viable and competitive. Supplies of ITA-1items and notified zero duty telecom/electronic itemsmanufactured by Electronics Hardware TechnologyPark (EHTP)/Export Oriented Units (EOU)/ SpecialEconomic Zone (SEZ) units in the Domestic Tariff Area(DTA) shall be counted towards fulfillment of exportobligation by these units. Upto 100% Foreign DirectInvestment is permitted on automatic route in theHardware manufacturing sector. Foreign Trade Policyfor Electronics and Information Technology Sector isliberal.

The Government has set up a National ManufacturingCompetitiveness Council (NMCC) to provide acontinuing forum for policy dialogue to energise andsustain the growth of manufacturing industryincluding IT Hardware. The Government has identified‘Conception and implementation of policies topromote growth of electronic and IT hardwaremanufacturing in India’ as one of the thrust areas. Inorder to attract investments in the IT Hardware sectorin India, Department of Information Technology hadformulated a Draft Paper on ‘National Electronics/ITHardware Manufacturing Policy’ after wide rangingconsultations with industry associations and otherstakeholders. The paper, which was widelydisseminated, elicited enthusiastic support from theindustry. The Tariff and Foreign Trade Policy proposalsin the Draft Paper have largely been addressed for theElectronics/IT Hardware manufacturing sectorwhereas promotional and other measures containedin the draft paper are equally applicable for the rest ofthe manufacturing sector in the country. Therefore,the Draft paper has been referred to the NMCC. TheNMCC has constituted a Sub-group on IT Hardwaresector. Secretary, Department of InformationTechnology is a member of the Sub-group.

A number of policy measures were taken forsupporting Electronics/IT Hardware manufacturingand export of services during the year. These areenumerated below:

Import of Second Hand Capital goods

Import of second hand capital goods includingrefurbished/reconditioned spares, has been allowedfreely, subject to conditions for the followingcategories:

• The import of second hand computers includingpersonal computers and laptops are restrictedfor imports.

• The import of refurbished/reconditioned spareswill be allowed on production of a CharteredEngineer certificate that such spares have aresidual life not less than 80% of the life of theoriginal spare.

Notwithstanding the above provisions, second handcomputers, laptops and computer peripheralsincluding printer, plotter, scanner, monitor, keyboardand storage units can be imported freely asdonations by the following category of donees

• School run by Central or State Government or alocal body

• Educational Institution run on non-commercialbasis by any organization

• Registered Charitable Hospital

• Public Library

• Public funded Research and DevelopmentEstablishment

• Community Information Centre run by theCentral or State Government or local bodies

• Adult Education Centre run by the Central orState Government or a local body

• Organization of the Central or State Governmentor a Union Territory.

EPCG Scheme

• Second hand capital goods without anyrestriction on age may also be imported underthe EPCG Scheme.

• The export obligation under EPCG Scheme canalso be fulfilled by the supply of Information

Technology Agreement (ITA-1) items to the DTAprovided the realization is in free foreignexchange.

• EPCG licence holders can opt for TechnologicalUpgradation of the existing capital goodimported under the EPCG licence.

Procedural Simplification andRationalisation Measures

• All exporters with minimum turnover of Rs. 5crore and good track record shall be exempt fromfurnishing Bank Guarantee in any of theschemes, so as to reduce their transactionalcosts.

• All goods and services exported, including thosefrom DTA units, shall be exempt from ServiceTax.

• Validity of all licences/entitlements issued undervarious schemes has been increased to auniform 24 months.

• Number of returns and forms to be filed havebeen reduced. This process shall be continued inconsultation with Customs and Excise.

• Enhanced delegation of powers to Zonal andRegional offices of DGFT for speedy and lesscumbersome disposal of matters.

• Time bound introduction of Electronic DataInterface (EDI) for export transactions.

Served from India Scheme

The objective of the scheme is to accelerate thegrowth in export of services so as to create apowerful and unique ‘Served from India’ brand,instantly recognised and respected the world over. Allservice providers who have a total foreign exchangeearning of at least Rs.10 lakhs in the preceding orcurrent financial year shall be eligible to qualify for aduty credit entitlement. All Service providers (otherthan hotels and restaurants) shall be entitled to dutycredit equivalent to 10% of the foreign exchangeearned by them in the preceding financial year. Dutycredit entitlement may be used for import of anycapital goods including spares, office equipment,professional equipment, office furniture andconsumables, related to the main line of business ofthe applicant.

Target Plus Scheme

The objective of the scheme is to accelerate growthin exports by rewarding Star Export Houses who have

8

9

achieved a quantum growth in exports. Highperforming Star Export Houses shall be entitled for aduty credit based on incremental exportssubstantially higher than the general annual exporttarget fixed.

New Status Holder Categorisation

A new rationalized scheme of categorization ofstatus holders as Star Export Houses has beenintroduced as under:

Category Total performanceover three years

One Star Export House 15 croreTwo Star Export House 100 croreThree Star Export House 500 croreFour Star Export House 1500 croreFive Star Export House 5000 crore

Star Export Houses shall be eligible for a number ofprivileges including fast track clearance procedures,exemption from furnishing of Bank Guarantee,eligibility for consideration under Target Plus Scheme,etc.

Duty/Tariff StructureCustoms Duty

Peak rate of customs duty has been reduced from20% to 15%. Customs duty on project imports withinvestment of at least Rs. 5 crore in plants andmachinery is @ 10%. Customs duty on ITA-1 items(217 items) has been abolished from 1.3.2005.Customs duty on Metals (Ferrous & Non-ferrous),chemicals and plastics has been reduced from 15%to 10%. All goods required in the manufacture of ITA-1 items have been exempted from customs dutysubject to Actual user condition. Customs duty onspecified electronic components has been exemptedexcept Deflection parts, Air cored and ferrite coredtransformers, RF/IF coils and Loudspeakers (conetype). An additional duty of 4% has been imposed onitems bound by IT Agreement (except IT Software)and their inputs, raw materials, parts, capital goodscovered under various customs notifications.Specified capital goods required in the manufactureof capacitors, electronic fuses, TDM, DCmicromotors, PCBs, Relays, Switches have beenexempted from customs duty. Customs Duty onspecified raw materials / inputs used for manufactureof electronic components or optical fibres / cables is@ 0%. Customs duty on specified capital goods usedfor manufacture of electronic goods is @ 0%.Specified infrastructure equipment for basic / cellular/

internet, V-SAT, radio paging and public mobile radiotrunked services and parts of such equipment areexempted from basic customs duty. Customs dutyexemption to mobile switching centres presentlyavailable to cellular mobile telephone serviceproviders has been extended to imports by universalaccess service providers. Customs duty oncellphones, parts of Set Top Box continues at 0%.Laptops brought as part of baggage are exemptedfrom customs duty. Customs duty on passengerbaggage has been reduced from 40% to 35%.

Central Excise Duty

Excise duty on computers is @ 0%. Microprocessors,Hard Disc Drives, Floppy Disc Drives and CD ROMDrives continue to be exempt from excise duty. Pre-loaded software on PCs, Audio CDs, RecordedVCDs and DVDs, Cellular Phones, Radio trunkingterminals, Portable receivers for calling, alerting orpaging; parts, components and accessories of mobilehandsets including cellular phones, Set Top Boxremain exempted from excise duty.

Production Profile

Computer software and ITES exports is estimated atUS$ 17.2 billion (Rs. 78,230 crore) from US $ 12.8billion (Rs. 58,240 crore) in 2003-04, an increase of34 per cent both in rupee terms and dollar terms overthe previous year.

Export revenues from ITES-BPO grew from US $ 2.5billion in year 2002-03 to US $ 3.6 billion in years2003-04, a year-on-year growth of 44 per cent. In year2003-04, ITES-BPO exports accounted for over 27 percent of the total export revenue earned by the IndianIT-ITES industry. The value of ITES-BPO exports fromIndia is expected to exceed the five billion mark in theyear 2004-05.

Consumer electronics sector is estimated to achievea production level of Rs. 16,8 00 crore during 2004-05, as compared to Rs. 15,200 crore in the year 2003-04, thus achieving a growth of over 10%. The colourTV production is likely to shoot over 10 million unitsduring the year 2004-05, against 8.9 million in theprevious year. VCD/MP3 player sales have witnessedimpressive growth.

Indian colour TV picture tube manufacturers havemade huge investments for manufacture of pure flatpicture tubes. The production of CPTs is likely toincrease to 11 million numbers during the year.

The sale of personal computers has also increased toabout 34 lakhs in numbers during the year 2004-05.The production in computer, instrumentation andcommunication industry is not matching growth indemand. The strategic electronics sector is showinga growth of about 11 per cent. Prices of colour TV andcomputers have also come down in consonance withthe worldwide trend.

The production and growth trends during the last 5year have been as follows:

Year Production Growth(Rs. Crore) (%)

2000-01 68,850 31.32001-02 80,124 16.42002-03 97,000 21.12003-04 118,290 21.92004-05 147,610 24.8

Consumer Electronics

The total production of Consumer Electronics isexpected to increase to Rs. 16,800 crore during theyear 2004-05, registering a growth of 10.5% overproduction in the previous year. The ConsumerElectronics sector has been a catalyst for the growthof Indian electronics industry, contributing about onethird of the total electronics hardware production.Colour TV is the largest contributor to this segment.During 2004-05, the production of colour TV is

expected to cross 10 million unit mark. Higher growthin flat screen TVs and large screen TVs is foreseen.With the growth in domestic demand, somecompanies have expanded their capacities or set upnew manufacturing units for Colour TVs and otherConsumer Electronics (CE) products. Encouragedwith the potential for growth, some new globalcompanies have set up operations and introducedtheir range of CE products. Further, OEM units havealso strengthened their operations for supply of fullyassembled TV sets as well as chassis, cabinet,remote controls, speakers, etc., to the brandedplayers. Some Multi National Companies (MNCs)have recently announced setting up or expansion ofR&D facilities in the country. India has emerged as anattractive destination for outsourcing. Multi NationalCompanies are looking at servicing the markets ofthe Asian region through their facilities in India.

Production of flat screen TVs is estimated to be over2 million nos. during 2004-05.There has been aphenomenal growth in production of flat televisions,which accounts for over 20% of the total colour TVproduction. About 85% of flat screen TV share isaccounted by 21 inch segment in the country. Pricesof entry level 21 inch flat CTV have dropped to Rs.9,000. Demand for 29 inch flat colour TV is alsogrowing at a rapid pace. CPT manufacturers haveinitiated setting up of production for 29 inch flat CPT,

10

1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05

10000

30000

50000

70000

90000

110000

130000

150000

28.1

00

31.1

00

32,7

50

37,5

00

43,8

00

49,7

5097

,860

147,

610

74,4

9011

8,29

0

59,5

0097

,000

47,3

7480

,124

37,7

5068

,850

24,3

5052

,450

ELECTRONICSPRODUCTIONPROFILERs. Crore

ComputerSoftware

ElectronicsHardware

11

which is likely to start commercial production insecond quarter of 2005. Some companies have alsointroduced DVD combo flat TV. Keeping pace with theworldwide development, a number of companieshave introduced hi-end TV, including Projection TVs,Plasma Display Panels (PDP) and Liquid CrystalDisplay (LCD) TVs. It is projected that LCD TV andPlasma will grow very fast and by the year 2008, outof the global demand of 197 million TVs, about 50million will be LCDs and Plasma based. In terms ofvalue, there is a huge global opportunity for LCD TVsand PDPs as both would yield about double therevenue of CRT based TVs. An Indian CPTmanufacturer is considering to set up PDP line tocater to the growing demand. This facility would bebased on indigenously developed technology.

The TV manufacturing companies are using one chipTV solution which has brought down system cost aswell as offering improved picture quality and morefeatures. This also provides TV set manufacturers anapproach for addressing worldwide markets havingdifferent standards through single chassis. Black andWhite (B&W) TV production has witnessed furtherdecline as the prices by branded players increasedfollowing increase in excise duty to 16%. Availabilityof B&W glass shell is limited with the existing unitsslowly converting into colour glass shell. Productionof B&W TV sets is estimated at 1.8 million Nos. during2004-05.

In December 2004, Prasar Bharati launched Direct-to-Home (DTH) broadcasting service covering bouquet

of 30 TV+ Radio Channels (free to air), which istargeted at remote, hills and interior areas of thecountry where there is no TV signal or access totelevision is limited to one Doordarshan channel. Toaccess the DTH service, a set-top box and a dishantenna will be required as one time investment. Thishas opened up an opportunity for manufacturing ofset top boxes (STB).

A few companies have introduced audio systemincorporating DVD Players. As the prices of audioCDs have reduced to almost at par with audiocassettes, CD based audio systems are growing andTape recorder sets are declining both in volume andvalue terms. Popularity of Home Theatre System isdriving growth of Hi-end audio equipment. Theemergence of FM channels has contributed to thegrowth in sales of stand alone FM radios.

Home Theatre system are increasingly becomingaffordable and have recorded significant growth in2004-05. The market primarily comprises twosegments - Home Theatre in a Box (HTIB) and highend Home Theatres, which is a package of DVDreceiver with five satellite speakers and a poweredsub woofer. HTIB accounts for about 60 per cent ofthe Home Theatre market and has tremendouspotential for growth with improving lifestyles andincreasing disposable income. Increased sale of DVDplayers, availability of DVD software at affordableprices is also contributing to the growth of thissegment. Wireless home theatre systems are alsogaining popularity.

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There has been an impressive growth in sale of DVDplayers during 2004-05. A number of MNCs andbranded players have entered this market, which isexpected to record over 100% growth. There hasbeen a sharp fall in prices of DVD players, which is inline with the trend in international markets. The subRs. 4000 DVD players represent the fastest movingsegment. The difference between the cost of VCDplayers and DVD players has narrowed downsignificantly which has helped in driving growth ofDVD Players. Slim DVD players have been introducedin the market with value added features like Dolbydigital, 5.1 channel output, JPEG photo, Zoom andmulti format disc compatibility.

VCD players are increasingly gaining popularity in ruralareas and semi-urban areas due to their low cost andabundance of content at reasonable prices. The totalproduction of VCD/MP3 players is estimated at 8million nos. in 2004-05. This segment is dominatedby unorganized sector. Some organizedmanufacturers of VCD Players have now startedselling critical parts like MPEG Board to theassemblers in unorganized sector.

The microwave oven industry has continued to growat the rate of 25-30% with significant reduction inprices as well as entry of more players in thissegment. Manufacturers are incorporating latestfeatures in their microwave oven range. These valueadded features are 3D wave distribution system, childlock, auto defrost, steam function, power savertechnology, etc.

The production of electronic Clocks and Watches hasgrown marginally but it is declining in value terms dueto reduction in the prices.

The production of recorded optical media coveringaudio CD, video CD and DVD is growing significantlyas the penetration of VCD/DVD players is rising rapidlywith decline in prices. During the year 2004-05, anumber of CD/DVD replication units have come upand a large capacity has built up. Some units are alsoexporting recorded DVDs. The production of recordedaudio cassettes continued to decline due topopularity of optical media and FM Radio.

During the year 2004-05, export of ConsumerElectronics products is expected to rise substantially.Major items of exports are colour TV, B&W TV, PAsystems, clocks and watches, video projectors, radio,recorded CD/DVD and electronic calculators.

Components

The colour picture tube industry achieved a landmarkin the year as the production exceeded 10 millionmark. The production is likely to touch a figure of 11million numbers, a growth of 26.5% over theproduction in 2003 which was 8.7 million. Theproduction of B&W picture tubes declined furtherdue to decreased market for B&W TVs. Other thanCPT , the components which showed positive growthwere Optical Discs, PCBs, Connectors, Ferrites, etc.The total production of components is expected toincrease to Rs. 8,800 crore, a growth of 11.3% overthe production in previous year.

The components with major share in the export arefloppy diskettes, CD-R, DVD-R, semiconductordevices, PCBs, connectors, ferrites, CPTs, etc.

Production of Major Components

Component Production2002 2003 2004

CPT (million no.) 7.50 8.70 11.0B/W Tube (million no.) 4.10 3.20 2.0PCBs (Rs. crore) 544 569 616Connectors(Rs. crore) 300 330 384Semiconductor (Rs. crore) 322 278 340Devices

Significant developments took place during the yearin the area of colour picture tubes and colour glassparts. Another CPT manufacturer successfullylaunched manufacture of pure flat tubes, leading toavailability of flat tubes from two indigenous sources.The number of pure flat tubes manufacturers is likelyto increase to three in the next year as one more unitcommenced trial production during the year. Morethan 30% of flat tubes market was met by theindigenous manufacturers. The growth in CPTindustry was led by boost in export which doubledduring the year over that in the previous year. Thecapacity utilisation of CPT industry improvedappreciably due to increased production of lineswhich were commissioned in the previous year. TheCPT units continued to plan further expansion ofcapacities to improve further their globalcompetitiveness. Two more lines are likely to becommissioned in the next year, one for manufactureof large size flat colour picture tubes and the secondfor computer display tubes. Keeping pace with thedownward trend in prices of color TVs, the prices ofCPTs also fell.

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One of the CPTs manufacturers has successfullydeveloped Basic prototype of the 42” PDP and workis in advanced stage of developing a prototype, whichwill meet fully the commercial specifications asrequired by the market. This is planned to becompleted by the end of year 2005. Next stage willbe setting up a Pilot manufacturing line, which will beused in optimizing all process parameters formanufacturing Plasma display panels.

The color glass parts manufacturer implementedmajor expansion of its capacity to meet increasedlocal requirement due to substantial growth in CPTproduction. The unit also started manufacture of glassparts for pure flat tubes as the demand for such tubesincreased due to one more unit launching productionduring the year. Both the existing manufacturers ofB/W glass parts continued the production of colourfunnels in their existing lines. They were also planningto make large investment to set up manufacturingfacilities for colour panels in near future.

In the optical storage device segment, an Indiancompany has the distinction of being the world’s thirdlargest manufacturer of optical storage media. Thecompany was exporting around 80% of the

production to 82 countries across the world. Thecompany was supplying to leading OriginalEquipment Manufacturers in the world and having ashare of 18.5% of the global market share.

A number of existing units imported capital goods forunder various schemes for expansion of theircapacities in PCBs, connectors, cable assemblies,colour picture tubes, compact disc, glass parts forcolour picture tubes, transformers, etc.

The serviceable market for professional gradecomponents PCBs, semiconductor devices,connectors, wound components, antennas, etc., islikely to go up due to expected launch of manufactureof mobile phones in the country in the near future.

The industry associations/forums related withcomponents have been taking steps to attractinvestment in component sector through variousmeans like organizing seminars/ exhibitions/workshops, sector specific inter-action withequipment manufacturers, etc.

Computer Industry

According to International Data Corporation (IDC)India’s information technology (IT) market is set to

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grow the fastest in the Asia-Pacific region in 2005.The main growth drivers as per the survey would bemobility, convergence and IT management.

High corporate consumption and buoyancy in smalltowns is driving sales of PC and is likely to touch 3.4million units in fiscal 2004-05 taking the total PCpenetration to 14m in the country. Internettraditionally been a significant driver for PC sales inthe country and with the announcement of newbroadband policy by the Indian government willprovide further boost to PC penetration. Broadbandwill usher in a whole new set of services includingonline games entertainment, education and otherinteractive public utility services, which will givefurther impetus to PC consumption. Delicensing ofwireless for indoors and outdoors, to help mobility,will lead to the increase in laptop demand.

With reduction of excise duty on PCs to zero, asafeguard duty of 6 to 7% has been imposed by thegovernment to safeguard local manufacturing ofcomputers. The prices of entry level PCs havereduced to about Rs. 15,000 and notebooks to aboutRs.40,000. The prices of other peripherals are alsofalling, a laser printer is available at a price ofRs.10,000. The technology wise trend is also shiftingtowards multifunction devices (MFDs) havingfeatures of a laser printer, fax, copier and scanner allcombined in one device.

The Hard Disk Drive technology is not limited tocomputers only, now with miniaturisation to the sizeof postage stamp (sub-one-inch form factor) and astorage capacity of 4GB, that too with less than 10grams of weight, is all set to be part of digital musicplayers, mobile phones, PDAs, digital still camerasand camcoders, etc.

To provide Internet access in locations such asairports, coffee shops, and so on, Wi Fi technology isbeing used. The number of locations providing suchfacilities is increasing.

The impact of computer technology is becomingvisible in all spheres of life. More and moreorganisations and agencies are providing a range ofonline services apart from regular information anddata related to it. The efficiency and quality of allsectors whether it is manufacturing or services hasgreatly improved with the use of InformationTechnology.

Software and Services

The Indian software and services export is estimatedat Rs. 78,230 crore (US$ 17.2 billion) in 2004-05, ascompared to Rs. 58,240 crore (US $ 12.8 billion) in2003-04, an increase of 34 per cent both in rupeeterms and dollar terms. This segment will continue toshow robust growth in future also.

India’s sustained leadership over other competingoffshore sourcing destinations is driven by strongfundamentals comprising a large and growing pool ofqualified, English speaking manpower; keen focus ondefining and adhering to global quality standards, thedemonstrated emphasis on information security, theimproving levels and strong government support –focused on improving basic infrastructure anddeveloping policies and an effective regulatoryregime that favour the growth of the industry.

With rapid growth in offshore outsourcing and theresultant export of critical data to offshoredestinations, companies and individuals in the Westhave raised concerns around the security ofproprietary information and the confidentiality ofpersonal data being sent to offshore locations.Information security concerns are also often cited asa hindrance to offshore outsourcing. Indian vendorshave demonstrated that information risk – as anyother business risk – is manageable, and haveevolved effective frameworks comprisingregulations, infrastructure standards and processesto managing information risks in offshore servicedelivery. Most companies have not faced any issues

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while outsourcing their work to India, and Indianvendors (and the government) are committed toensuring that they understand, match – andpreferably exceed – the levels of information securityexpected by their clients.

Indian ITES-BPO sector industry continues to growfrom strength to strength, witnessing high levels ofactivity – both onshore as well as offshore. Last yearwitnessed vendors moving up the value-chain tooffer higher-end research and analytics services totheir clients. Attrition levels also remained high,between 25-40 per cent, as demand for trained talentoutpaced supply.

As export revenues from ITES-BPO grew from US $2.5 billion in year 2002-03 to US $ 3.6 billion in years2003-04, an year-on-year growth of 44 per cent wasachieved. In year 2003-04, ITES-BPO exportsaccounted for over 27 per cent of the total exportrevenue earned by the Indian IT-ITES industry. Thevalue of ITES-BPO exports from India is expected toexceed US $ 5 billion mark in the year 2004-05.

The Indian IT success story has also highlightedIndia’s attractiveness as an investment destination –also beyond the IT sector. Another key impact of theglobal sourcing model popularised by the growth of IT - ITES has been the reversal of the brain drain – aspeople of Indian origin (who went to pursue careersabroad), as well as young expatriates, are nowattracted to work in India.

Indian IT - ITES growth has had a significant multipliereffect on the Indian economy. Apart from the directimpact on national income and employment, thesector has also contributed to the growth of severalancillary industries, a rise in direct-tax collection andan increase in consumer spend due to thesignificantly higher disposable incomes.

The rapid growth of ITES-BPO and the IT industry asa whole has made a deep impact on the socio-economic dynamics of the country. The sector hasrisen to become biggest employment generator withthe number of jobs added almost doubling each year,has spawned a number of ancillary businesses suchas transportation, real estate and catering, and hascontributed to a rising class of young consumers withhigh disposable incomes.

The industry’s contribution to the national economicoutput has nearly tripled-from 1.2 per cent in the year1997-98 to 3.5 per cent in 2003-04. With this growth,the sector is estimated to account for 4.1 per cent ofthe national GDP in the year 2004-05.

Indian IT ITES-BPO companies consider security tobe an important aspect while providing services toclients. Most Indian companies provide comparableand at times a better security environment to theirclients for offshoring work. Tier-IT and ITES-BPOcompanies follow global best practices in providingadequate security cover to their clients. Tier-IIcompanies, though restrained by their size andinvestment, provide adequate security cover to meettheir clients’ requirements.

The total number of IT and ITES-BPO professionalsemployed in India has grown from 284,000 in 1999-2000 to over 1 million in 2004-05, growing by over160,000 in the last year alone. The IT services andsoftware sector is expected to add 109,000 jobs inthe current fiscal, ITES-BPO another 94,500 jobs.The number of professionals employed in India by ITand ITES sectors is estimated at 1,045, 000 byMarch, 2005 of which 345,000 were in the ITsoftware and services export industry; nearly348,000 in ITES-BPO sector; 30,000 in the domesticsoftware market and over 322,000 in userorganizations.

Control, Instrumentation and IndustrialSector

This sector consist of Industrial and Process ControlSystems, Process Control Instruments, Analytical,Diagnolstic System of Instrumentation and GeneralPurpose Test and Measuring (T&M) Instruments.

The T&M Industry forms the backbone fordevelopment of state of art technologies. DigitalMeasuring techniques are rising to meet userexpectations for better capabilities. Improvement inMicro-controller Based and Surface MountTechnologies have resulted in much wider range ofT&M applications. Micro-controller based T&Minstruments with PC interface have provided higherthroughput and cost effective solutions. Use ofSurface Mount Devices (SMDs) have considerablyreduced the size of instruments.

Communication and Broadcasting Sector

Unprecedented growth of telecom subscribers haveoccurred during the year 2004. As many as 22.18million subscribers have been added during the year2004. A tele-density of 8.62 per 100 persons in thecountry has consequently been achieved byDecember 2004, crossing 92 million mark. Aninteresting observation is that 19.50 million mobilesubscribers were added during the year, taking thetotal of this category to 48 million, and thus wirelessphones overtook fixed wireline connections. India has

emerged as the second largest market for mobilehandsets. Following the fast growth in the mobilemarket, a number of companies have announcedsetting up production based for mobile hand sets inthe country for meeting domestic as well as exportmarkets.

Direct to Home (DTH) broadcast service in Ku-Bandthrough satellite was also started by the NationalBroadcaster, in addition to one private DTH serviceprovider. Good quality digital broadcast reception isavailable almost everywhere in the country to thecitizens, on their television sets through the use ofsmall dish antenna and a Set Top Box (STB).

Strategic Electronics

The production in the strategic electronics sectorduring the year 2004-05 is estimated to be Rs. 3,050crore, as compared to Rs. 2,750 crore during the year2003-04.

Electronics Exports

During the year 2004-05, electronics and IT exportsare estimated to be Rs. 86,980 crore, as compared toRs. 65,940 crore in 2003-04, showing a phenomenalgrowth of 32 per cent. The software and servicesindustry continues to show a robust growth and thetotal value of software and services export areestimated at Rs. 78,230 crore (US$ 17.2 billion) in theyear 2004-05, as compared to Rs. 58,240 crore (US$12.8 billion) in the year 2003-04, an increase of over34 per cent in both rupee terms and dollar terms.

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Initiatives in InformationTechnology Sector E-Governance

Government is committed to bring about totaltransparency in administration and makegovernment functioning more citizen centric. E-Governance has immense potential in realizingthese objectives and in improving efficiency,reponsiveness and convenience for end users ofGovernment services. Government, therefore,proposes to promote E-Governance on a massivescale by harnessing all possible resources that areavailable both in public and private sectors andwould provide required policy initiatives andbudgetary support needed to stimulate its growth.

Achievements during 2004-05

National E-Governance Plan

A National e-Governance Plan has been drawnwhich seeks to implement 25 Mission ModeProjects for the present at the Centre, State andintegrated service levels so as to create a citizen-centric and business-centric environment forgovernance, create the right governance andinstitutional mechanisms, set up coreinfrastructure, formulate key policies andchannelise private sector technical and financialresources into the national e-Governance efforts.

Line Ministries/Departments nodally responsiblefor the implementation of Mission Mode Projectshave been advised to prepare project proposalscovering service goals being aimed at,implementation strategy, funds requirements andgaps, time lines for implementation etc. Themission mode projects account for major fundcomponents of the National e-Governance Plan.

An Apex Committee for the National e-GovernancePlan has been constituted under the Chairmanshipof Cabinet Secretary with Secretary, Department ofInformation Technology as Member Convener. TheApex Committee oversees and provides Policydirections for the implementation of National e-Governance Plan and will ensure inter-ministerialcoordination.

Programme Implementation Structure / Unit

A Consultancy assignment for programmemanagement structure and funding arrangementfor National e-Governance Plan has been awardedto Pricewaterhouse Coopers Pvt. Ltd. The taskinclude: i) to recommend appropriate ProgrammeManagement Structure (PMS) for National e-Governance Plan covering all project andcomponents; ii) to recommend broad projectmanagement mechanism and structures for variousprojects and components and their linkage withPMS; and iii) to recommend an appropriate fundmobilization, management and deploymentstrategy and structure for National e-Governanceplan. The draft report by the consultants on theprogramme management structure and fundingarrangement for National e-Governance Plan hasbeen received and is under active consideration ofthe Department.

Replication of Successful e-Governance Projects

The Department of Information Technology hasinitiated a pilot scheme aimed at spreading thebenefits of e-Governance to citizens in all parts ofthe country. One key component of this multi-pronged initiative is to identify and replicate major

18

successes that have been achieved in some states.The specific success stories that have beenidentified on this basis are:

• Land Records• Transport Department• Registration• Municipalities• Gram Panchayats• Integrated Citizen Service Centres (front ends like

e-Seva, Friends, etc.)

Each of these projects has been implemented verysuccessfully in one or more States. Other States,for various reasons, have not been able to cross

implementation hurdles and derive the benefits ofthese projects. The Department of InformationTechnology has, therefore, formulated a strategy toreplicate these successes in other States. In thefirst phase, projects on Land Records, Transportand Registration have been taken.

The projects under above category were initiatedfrom the year 2002-03. The project initiated duringthe year 2002-03 and 2003-04 are at differentstages of implementation. A brief status on theprojects initiated during 2002-03 and 2003-04 aregiven below.

Land Records Computerization Projects

Project implementation complete and pilotimplementation being taken as reference for State-wide rollout on Public Private Partnership (PPP)model in the State of West Bengal, HimachalPradesh, Sikkim and Gujarat. Pilot has been madeonline operational and is working in a specifiedDistrict of the State of Orissa. Implementation ofcomputerization process has been progressing wellin the States of Haryana, Punjab, Kerala, MadhyaPradesh, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Assam andPondicherry.

Computerization of Property Registration

Pilot project has been completed and Statewiderollout plan being finalized in the State of WestBengal. Pilot project is in final stage of completionin Himachal Pradesh. Site preparation has beencompleted in Punjab and progressing well in theStates of Pondicherry, Orissa, Uttaranchal, Sikkim.Assam, Rajasthan and Tripura

Computerization of Transport system at RTOs

Project site is running successfully and formalinauguration of pilot site being planned in WestBengal. Pilot project is working satisfactorily inKerala and Delhi and is progressing well in theStates of Tripura, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

India Portal

This is a Mission Mode project under the Nationale-Governance plan to provide a single windowinterface for all the Government services to thecitizens at the National and State levels. Thisproject is being implemented by the NIC and wouldbe an extension to their ‘India Image’ portalcatering to the G2C services.

MISSION MODE PROJECTS

Mission Mode Projects Line Ministries / Departments

Central Government

01 Income Tax Ministry of Finance / CBDT

02 Passport Visa Ministry of External Affairs /

& Immigration Project Ministry of Home Affairs

03 DCA1 Department of Company Affairs

04 Insurance Department of Banking

05 National Citizen Database Ministry of Home Affairs / RGI

06 Central Excise Department of Revenue / CBEC

07 Pensions DOPPW & Department of Expenditure

08 Banking Department of Banking

State Government

01 Land Records Ministry of Rural Development

02 Road Transport Ministry of Road Transport & Highways

03 Property Registration Department of Land Resources /

Ministry of Rural Development

04 Agriculture Department of Agriculture

05 Treasuries Ministry of Finance

06 Municipalities Ministry of Urban Development

07 Gram Panchayats Ministry of Rural Development

08 Commercial Taxes Ministry of Finance

09 Police (UTs initially) Ministry of Home Affairs

10 Employment Exchanges Ministry of Labour & Employment

Integrated Services

01 EDI (E-Commerce) Ministry of Commerce & Industries

02 E-Biz Department of Industrial Policy &

Promotion Planning / DIT

03 Common Service Centres DIT

04 India Portal DIT and DAR&PG

05 EG Gateway DIT

06 E Procurement Ministry of Commerce & Industries / DIT

07 E Courts Ministry of Justice /

Ministry of Home Affairs

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India Development Gateway (InDG)

This project is funded by the Development GatewayFoundation (DGF) and Department of InformationTechnology and is being implemented by C-DAC.The grant agreement between DEA (Department ofEconomic Affairs) and DGF has been signed. Abooklet on the InDG project and website on thesame were launched.

National e-Governance Service Delivery

Gateway

The National e-Governance Service DeliveryGateway is a part of the Core Infrastructure underthe National e-Governance Plan and will be servingvarious Mission Mode Projects at the State andCentre. The gateway will enable multiple backendapplications to connect with multiple front-endservice providers in a secure and reliable manner byenabling standards based communication. It willalso enable inter-operability among autonomousand heterogeneous entities of the Government (beit in the Centre, States or Local bodies) thatessentially communicate in an asynchronousmode.

This project is technically, financially and structurallyvery challenging and complex. While governmentwas looking for some industry partner; Consortiumof Industry partner's led by Intel came forward todevelop the concept and implement a pilot.

An Advisory and Technical Sub-Committee Groupcomprising of members from NIC, NISG, C-DAC,DAR&PG and industry has been constituted tooversee and guide the implementation of theGateway pilot.

A proof of concept of the Gateway Pilot has beenbuilt and demonstrated. Work on the various vendorstacks, gateway topology and request for proposalis currently being carried out. An operationalgateway would be available by the end of this year.

E-Assessment

E-Assessment is one of the important componentsof the National e-Governance Plan . It is planned tolist out all the e-Governance projects runningacross various States and at the national level andundertake summary / detailed assessment of theseprojects for their effectiveness and sustainability. AWorking Group has been constituted to provide

overall guidance and steer the e-Assessmentprogramme. A sub-committee for evaluation ofproposals for e-Governance project assessments(summary and detailed ) has also been constituted.

State Wide Area Network

Network connectivity is a significant enabler of anymodern, efficient administration. The DevelopmentBlock is the basic tier of the developmentadministration, particularly for rural areas in ourcountry. Provision of reliable network connectivity,particularly for rural areas, is an imperative. It has,therefore, been decided that high-speed, highcapacity (minimum 2 Mbps), reliable networkconnectivity for Government-to-Governmentcommunication will be extended up to the Blocklevel through State Wide Area Networks and/orNICNET. The latter is currently being run by theNational Informatics Centre i.e. NIC, primarily as aVSAT based network up to the District level.

It is intended that various e-Governance projects,which would be implemented in a phased mannerover the next 4-5 years by the Line Ministries/Departments concerned at the Central and Statelevels may avail themselves of seamlessconnectivity using these State Wide Area Networks(SWAN) and NICNET. This network connectivity

could also be progressively leveraged to provideservices electronically to citizens at the village levelby extending its reach through wireless and othertechnologies relevant for the last mile.

The Department of Information Technology isprimarily responsible for establishing the sharedcore backbone infrastructure identified in Nationale-Governance Plan . Policy guidelines have beenissued laying down the modalities for technical andfinancial support that will be provided by the DIT tothe States for establishing State Area WideNetworks (SWAN). These include the technical andadministrative norms to be followed by the States,depending on the implementation option adoptedby each State to establish the SWAN.

State Data Centre

State Data Centre has been identified as one of theimportant element of the core infrastructure forsupporting e-Governance initiatives under theNational e-Governance Plan . It is proposed tocreate data repositories/data centres in variousstates so that a common secured data storagecould be maintained to serve host of e-Governanceapplications.

Standards in e-Governance

A Core Group on standards in e-Governance hasbeen constituted by the DIT. Four sub-groups (majorpriority areas, documentation, quality andlocalization) have been constituted under the CoreGroup to look into specific areas.

e-Readiness

The Department has commissioned e-ReadinessAssessment Study 2004 through the NationalCouncil of Applied Economic Research (NCEAR) forthe States and Union Territories and the report isexpected to be released shortly.

ICT for Development

A UNDP funded project `ICT for Development’ hasbeen approved at a total outlay of US$ 5 millionover a period of 4 years and is being implementedby National Institute for Smart Government(NISG).The project has identified 4 themes viz., IntegratedCitizen Services, Enhancing Livelihood andTransforming Rural Governance and WomanEmpowerment. The project has the managementstructure comprising of Project Management Boardand Steering Committee. NISG has invitedproposals under this programme and a list ofproposals have been identified for providingsupport.

Other Projects undertaken during 2004-05

• State Wide Area Network DIAMOND for theState of Kerala

• State Data Centre in Karnataka • Feasibility study for design and implementation

of State Wide Area Network for Rajasthan.• Pre-project study and requirement analysis

assignment for comprehensive e-Governancesolutions for Office of DevelopmentCommissioner (Handicrafts)

• Rural Area Development Monitoring andInformation System for Pudukkottai District(Tamil Nadu)

• Land Resource Information System (LRIS) forMysore District

• Creation of citizen ID and database for ruraldigital services in Karnataka

• Panchayats empowerment and communicationwith the Government in local languages inSikkim

• Comprehensive e-Governance solution in thetransport sector for the North-Eastern States.

Miscellaneous

E-Government Champion Training Program fordecision makers has been conducted by NISG todevelop strong leadership, clear accountability andimproved levels of project management skills forchampioning e-Government projects in the States.

Training programmes on e-Governance initiativesacross India were conducted during January to July,2004 for institutes in NCR region. 37 institutes withnearly 30 students from each institute participatedin the training programme.

Web enabled version of the newsletter, Pardarshi,was published in June 2004 on DIT Website.

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E-Commerce & Information Security

The Department of Information Technology hasbeen giving importance to promote research anddevelopment in the field of Information Technologyand Electronics in the country and providesfinancial support for undertaking research anddevelopment. The programme continued to pursueits efforts to promote competence and indigenoustechnology development and test bed applicationsin information security area.

The four projects which were completed during the years have led to setting up of a TechnicalResource Centre for cyber forensics at C-DAC,Thiruvananthapuram; steganographic capabilities atC-DAC, Kolkata; capabilities around biometricsystems at IIT, Kanpur; and adaptive intrusiondetection, analysis and response system at C-DAC,Bangalore.

The on-going projects are presently aimed atdevelopment of neuro psychological methods ofinterrogation of suspects; frameworks formanaging enterprise network security; embeddeddevices and system security; elliptic curvecryptography products; adaptive intrusion detectionsystems; steganography; enterprise securitymanagement framework; data mining techniques;secure and survivable storage; high speed(gigabit/s) network monitoring tool; print documentsecurity tool kit; system and software for collectionof electromagnetic signatures from digitalequipment; lawful interception of VoIP traffic;secure smart card OS; storage securing device withintrusion detection capabilities; and algorithm forrobust speaker identification.

Eighteen new projects have also been initiated inthe areas of chaotic cryptography; security schemefor mobile e-Commerce applications andminimalistic object oriented linux; multimodalbiometrics system; secure architecture anddevelopment of tools for intrusion detection inmobile adhoc networks; independent componentanalysis based blind source separation algorithmsfor audio/image separation; cryptosystemsresistant to vulnerabilities and side channel attacks;learning system for intrusion tolerant databasesystem; end system security solution for UDPapplications; optimization of search time forevaluation of ciphers using genetic algorithm basedcryptanalysis; intrusion detection using soft

computing; support vector machine basedintelligent network intrusion detection system;protocols and security framework for mobilepayment system; PKI based wireless security;software based system for face identification;integrated security device for tracking and dataacquisition using RFID and attack methodologyanalysis and network attack modeling.

Indian Computer Emergency Response

Team (CERT-In)

CERT-In was made operational with the regularissuance of Advisories, Alerts, and VulnerabilityNotes. Spread of vulnerabilities on various popularsoftware platforms were monitored on a regularbasis as also the release of new viruses andworms. Appropriate Vulnerability Notes and themeans for protecting against them were developedregularly and published on the CERT-In website.

Security guidelines on major platforms includingWindows, Linux, Oracle and CISCO systems weredeveloped to help spread awareness on protectivemeasures for securing computer systems andnetworks. In addition to dissemination of theprotective measures on the CERT-In website,regular Workshops and Seminars on securityawareness were conducted by CERT-In for usersfrom the Government and critical infrastructureorganizations.

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Website hosting guidelines were issued and theuse of domain names under ‘gov.in’ was alsopromoted as part of securing governmentwebsites. Framework for security of informationsystems was created with the aim of informationsecurity assurance through security audits andpenetration testing of Government organizationsand critical infrastructure agencies.

CERT-In played its role of mother CERT in thecountry by organizing Workshops for varioussectors such as the Armed Forces to help themnucleate CERTs in their own areas. As the nodalagency for cyber security, it interacted with cybersecurity officials in different sectors to advise themon matters appropriate to their working. CERT-Inalso started the process of empanelling of securityauditors who would be used by the governmentand critical infrastructure organizations to conductinformation security audits including vulnerabilityassessment.

A large number of incidents relating to publishingand web defacement were attended to by thetechnical experts of CERT-In. Analysis of webdefacement was carried out on a regular basis.Automated software was developed to trackdefacements and analyse the same. Deficiencies inlegal framework for monitoring of Internetgateways for cyber attacks were analysed andpresented to the Government.

Future Outlook

Manpower for CERT-In will be augmented, and thetechnical teams will deepen their expertise inrespective software fields and continue to issueVulnerability Notes, Advisories and Alerts. Theincident response capability of CERT-In will beextended on 24x7 basis in due course.

Proactive monitoring of cyber attacks at Internetgateways of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will

be initiated through appropriate legal enablers. Thiswill help CERT-In stop proliferation of maliciousattacks detected in an ISP from spreading to otherISPs.

Security Auditors for information systemsassurance including penetration testing of systemsand networks will be empanelled by CERT-In. Allgovernment organizations and critical infrastructureagencies will be encouraged to follow the practicesissued in the CERT-In Guidelines on SecurityAssurance Framework.

IT Act /Certification

The Information Technology Act 2000 provides thelegal framework for establishing trust in theelectronic environment in the country. Both e-Commerce and e-Governance transactions arecovered under the ambit of the IT Act, whichfacilitates acceptance of electronic records andDigital Signatures. During the year, three moreCertifying Authorities were licensed under the ITAct, 2000. These include Mahanagar TelephoneNigam Ltd (MTNL), Central Board of Excise andCustoms (CBEC) and (n)Code Solutions – a divisionof Gujarat Narmada Fertilizers Corporation, bringingthe number of CAs licensed by the CCA to seven.

The Root Certifying Authority of India (RCAI) – theroot of trust for authenticated electronictransactions; the National Repository of DigitalSignatures Certificates (NRDC) which hosts theDigital Signature Certificates issued by the licensedCAs; and the website cca.gov.in comprise thetechnical infrastructure being operated by the CCA.

Efforts to promote the use of Digital Signaturescontinued throughout the year. Special focus wasgiven to the integration of digital signatures in e-Governance applications – DCA’21 of theDepartment of Company Affairs and the eBiz portalof the Department of Industrial Policy andPromotion – by studying common RA (RegistrationAuthority) requirements and aligning them with theservice offerings of the Certifying Authorities. Aspecial Class of certificate was proposed to cater toall digitally signed interactions with theGovernment. Digital signature certificates arealready being used in a number of sectors like stockbroking community, banking, income tax and for e-governance.

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A number of training programmes were organizedfor the Police and Judiciary. Specialized three-and-a-half week course on Penetration Testing andNetwork Security was held at Police Headquartersin New Delhi while two one-week workshops onCyber Crime Investigation and Cyber Forensicswere held for police personnel. Cyber Forensicstraining programme using CyberCheck, a forensictool developed under DIT funding was alsoconducted under collaboration with other agencies.

The number of Digital Signature Certificates grewfrom around 10,000 in 2003-04 to nearly 30,000 in2004-05.

Amount of Bank Guarantee to be submitted bylicensed CAs was reduced from Rs 10 crore to Rs 1crore for new companies and from Rs 5 crore to Rs50 lakh for companies incorporated more than ayear before submission of application for grant oflicence. Rules were formulated relating toelectronic filing of forms, application and any otherdocument as well as for creation of secureelectronic record and secure digital signature.

Plan for 2005-2006

The DR site will be made fully operational. Theupdation of the National Repository of DigitalSignature Certificates with the Certificates and CRLof the CAs will be automated. A software to aidverification of digital signatures will be developed to

aid relying parties in ascertaining authenticity ofdigitally signed documents. Courses will beorganized for training Adjudicating Officers underthe IT Act and for training investigating agencies inCyber Forensics. A Cyber Forensics laboratory willbe made operational in the office of CCA.

The Semiconductor Integrated Circuits

Layout-Design Act 2000

The Semiconductor Integrated Circuits LayoutDesign Act 2000 provides for protection ofSemiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout Designsand for matters connected therewith or incidentalthereto. The Act is in line with the TRIPS Agreementto which India is a signatory. As per the provisionsmade under the Semiconductor Integrated CircuitsLayout-design Act 2000, a Registry known as theSemiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-designRegistry has to be established to facilitate theregistration of layout-designs. Cases/appealsarising from Registry, etc., are to be dealt by anLayout Design Appellate Board.

During the year, several actions for establishing theSemiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-designRegistry at Delhi including necessary infrastructure,interactions with Patent Office in Delhi and Kolkata,evolving methods and practices to be followed atthe Registry, etc., were pursued. Also, furtherfollow up on Appellate Board matters with Ministryof Law was taken up.

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Technology and ApplicationDevelopmentMedia Lab Asia

Media Lab Asia was set up as a not-for-profit Section25 Company with an aim to research and innovateInformation and Communication Technologies (ICT)relevant for the common man and to promotedeployment of research projects in rural and remoteareas to serve the poor and other needy population.The Technology Advisory Board of Media Lab Asiaidentified use of ICT for Education, Healthcare,Livelihood and for the disabled as major applicationareas of focus and Wireless Communications,affordable access devices and tools as technologyresearch areas.

Achievements during 2004-05

Agro Explorer

The project at IIT, Bombay aims at multilingualaccess for the agricultural information available onthe Web. The query of the farmer, in local language,is converted into Universal Networking Language(UNL) form and the Web is searched using this. Thedocuments archived on the Web as results of thesearch, which are in different languages, are againconverted into UNL form. The final documents arepresented to the user in his native language bydecoding the UNL form. The system is currentlybeing developed for Marathi, Hindi, Bengali, andTamil languages.

Using the above technique, a discussion forumAQUA for the villagers / farmers has been developed.The system is being field tested in villages near Punein collaboration with Vigyan Ashram, Pabal.

Key-lekh keyboard

The project at IIT, Bombay aims at the developmentof an easy to learn, user friendly keyboard in Indianlanguages. A study on optimizing finger travel andefficiency on the keyboard for Indian languages wasfirst carried out. Based on this, several designs ofkeyboards were prototyped for pilot testing andevaluation. The pilot testing is currently being done atselected information kiosks in rural Maharashtra.

Bhav Puchiye

The system developed at IIT, Bombay provides onlineinformation on various agriculture products and theircurrent market rates at different near by markets. Thesystem uses the market information available fromNIC Agri Portal with appropriate user interface andhelps the user in taking decisions in marketing hiscommodity taking into account the market rate,transport costs, etc. This would help the farmers toget better returns on their produce. The system isbeing field tested in villages near Pune incollaboration with Vigyan Ashram, Pabal.

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Poly Sensors

The project at IIT, Bombay aims to developinexpensive conducting polymer sensors fordetermining ionic contaminants (pH, Fluoride,Potassium and possibly Chloride) as well as Urea inwater. A pH Sensor has been developed with goodrepeatability of measurement. Replicability of thesensor is to be tested. Other sensors are in variousstages of development.

Multilingual Interface to Gram Chitra

A Geographical Information System (GIS) forhandheld computers on Linux was developed in anearlier project. The current project aims to providemultilingual interface to this GIS. An initial translationpackage to run on desktops has been developed forEnglish to Hindi. Work is being done for translationfrom/to Telugu and for porting of this software onhandheld devices. The domains of Agriculture arebeing considered as starting examples in developingthe software. This technology will also be used forproviding multilingual interface on portableterminals.

Ad-hoc Networks

An ad-hoc network is a dynamically changingunpredictable network that is created by the mobilenodes when needed for their own communicationpurposes. Under the project at IIT Delhi, a testimplementation of IEEE 802.11b WiFi standardbased self-configurable network with PCs and HandHeld Computers (iPAQs) has been developed onLinux. Further, a temperature sensor network hasbeen designed and tested. Other than measuringthe temperature, the sensor is able to schedulemeasurements and communicate the same to a‘collator’. The collection of collators, in turn, form anad hoc network, discover the central ‘ temperaturemanagement station’ and communicate all collatedinformation to the temperature managementstation.

A Video-based surveillance network has also beentested for implementation of a surveillance networkunder the project.

Recently, the working of Voice-over-IP over an infra-structure based wireless network has beendemonstrated. The quality of voice in terms of transitdelay and jitter is under investigation.

Low Cost Computing Technologies

The aim of this project at IIT, Delhi, is to work withvarious microprocessor based platforms and variousembedded operating systems to provide a matrix ofsolutions from where a user can choose a specificsolution optimised for a given application. Softwaredrivers for different interfaces have been developedto run on ARM925 and OMAP510 processors.

Making Legacy Documents Available on the

Web

The aim of the project at IIT, Delhi is to develop imageanalysis techniques for making legacy or classicalIndian language documents Web accessible. Work isbeing done on development of i) a model guidedpage segmentation scheme; ii) an XML basedrepresentation scheme for segmented documentimages; and iii) image compression scheme forDevnagari texts.

Sanyog: Visual Language with particular

application to the communication needs of the

children with neuro-motor disorders

The project at IIT, Kharagpur aims at developing avisual language technology and associatedmultimedia platform to provide a new and morenatural communication for the under-privilegedsegment of the society. The development utilizesComputational Semantics, Artificial Intelligenceincluding Natural Language Processing in IndianLanguages. The segments of the society who willdirectly benefit from the proposed technologyinclude the neo-literates and pre-literates in the ruralarea, and people with speech and neuro-motordisorders (cerebral palsy). A prototype system iscurrently being tested at the Indian Institute ofCerebral Palsy (IICP), Kolkata.

Samvidha: Content Personalization for Rural

Schools

The system developed at IIT, Kharagpur aims atproviding the students and teachers in rural schoolsof India access to information relevant for them fromthe Internet at low cost. The system provides off-lineInternet access to the schools and provides theusers with relevant content in answer to theirqueries on subjects related to their curriculum.

The basic architecture of the system consists of oneor more schools connected to a central server. The

users in a school are presented with a virtualbrowser, in which they can enter their searchqueries. The queries are used to access informationfrom a local cache which is presented to the user. Nointernet access is required if the user is satisfied withthe results. For internet search, the queries arecollected and sent to the server whenever aconnection is established with the server. The serverretrieves documents from the Web, and identifiesdocuments relevant to the user and sends them tothe schools when connection is established. Thistechnique significantly reduces the cost of internetaccess in a public switched network basedconnectivity. The system is currently being tested atthe Central School at IIT, Kharagpur.

Rural Wi-Fi

The research lab of Media Lab Asia at IIT, Madras isworking on mesh peer-to-peer topologies for ruralIEEE 802.11 standard based networks that will solvethe ‘last 25 km’ access problem of rural India, asmany rural communities in India are within 25 km offiber. The lab version of the system has been testedat IIT, Madras for distances up to 5 km. VoIPexperiments were also successfully conducted inthe lab using 802.11b based single hop. Extensivetests are planned to be taken up over a biggernetwork.

System-on-Chip for Messaging Terminal

as an Access Device

MeTel Plus is a low cost messaging terminal. It istargeted for applications in rural areas, in conjunctionwith a connectivity solution such as the CorDectwireless system. The aim of the project at IIT, Madrasis to provide a terminal for simple web-browsing, e-mail, chat, SMS, stock quotes and market pricechecks, etc., over a wireless connectivity. Theprototype is being made using Field ProgrammableGate Arrays ( FPGAs).

Gram Patra

Gram Patra developed by Media Lab Asia is useful fordelivering digital content at locations which do nothave online internet connectivity. It has theadvantage of providing the convenience of off-lineemail delivery, low cost infrastructure, deeppenetration and reach. Pilot deployment of thistechnology is being taken up in conjunction withBhoomi Project for land records in rural setups ofKarnataka.

A Mobile Health Care Delivery System

A mobile healthcare system typically consists ofmobile units equipped with computers anddiagnostic devices. These units are supported byspecially developed software and hardware forhealth screening, health education, informationdissemination, patient data acquisition, andcommunication with doctors for diagnosis,prescription and treatment. The entire system isproposed to be designed for use by a paramedic atthe patient end. In addition, the mobile units can beused to provide other services, such as veterinaryservices, agricultural services, education for childrenand adults etc. A project to deliver holistic healthcareusing a mobile platform has been initiated at IIT,Kanpur.

Digital Mandi

Digital Mandi developed at IIT, Kanpur is an electronictrading platform for agro commodities. The idea is toconnect dispersed village level primary mandis,down market and mills through a web basedinteractive marketing platform. This can facilitatespeedy and efficient information dissemination forbetter price realisation and risk management. Aprototype of the system has been developed, and itspilot deployment is under consideration.

Shruti-Drishti- Computer Aided Text-to-Speech

and Text-to-Braille System for Visually Impaired

A system has been developed in collaboration withC-DAC Pune and Webel Mediatronics Ltd, (WML)Kolkata; to enable visually impaired persons accesselectronic documents from the websites both inspeech and Braille forms. The beta version of thesystem developed has been donated to Ms. KickkyNordstorm, Chairperson, International BlindAssociation, Sweden.

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A Web camera capable of sending video

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BRICS

The project at IIT, Kanpur aims at development oftechnology elements to facilitate hands-on learning,focusing on tools for Digital Learning andProgramming - without the use of computer. A low-cost motorized robot kit, which can follow a wall andturn in one direction, has been developed and avendor is now manufacturing the kit. Trial batch of100 pieces has been made and a few dozen kits havebeen deployed in the Navodaya Schools. A handheldkey-based programming device PrISM(Programmable Interface for Sensors and Motors)has also been designed for program entry.

Screen Access For All (SAFA)

A screen reading software in Hindi and English toenable the visually impaired persons use a PersonalComputer (PC) is being developed at the NationalAssociation for the Blind, New Delhi. This wouldenable visually impaired persons to accessinformation on PC / Internet, using speech output.

Futuristic Technologies in Secure

Computer and Communication

Infrastructure by TIFR, Mumbai

The project has been initiated at Tata Institute ofFundamental Research, Mumbai to realize the recentthrust of the Government in the realization ofperpetually available secure critical infrastructure.The envisaged plan is to build highly secure, availableand survivable infrastructures with computernetwork and information technology. Ademonstrable test bed comprising about 50 nodewireless mobile ad-hoc network is being set up fortesting the protocols/algorithms.

Cyber Forensic Lab

The Department of Information Technology (DIT) isproviding support for the establishment of a CyberForensic Lab in the Central Bureau of Investigation.This Lab would act as a Resource Centre andprovide support to Law Enforcement Agencies. Theproject was implemented by ERNET India, anAutonomous Society under DIT. The project wascompleted during the year 2004-05.

Technology Development for Indian

Languages Programme (TDIL)

The world is in the midst of a technological revolutionnucleated around Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT). Advances in Human LanguageTechnology will offer nearly universal access toinformation and services for more and more peoplein their own language. Today most of the content on

the Web is in English, which is spoken by only 8% ofthe World population and only 5% of Indianpopulation. In a multilingual country like India, with22 official languages and 10 scripts, it is essentialthat information processing and translation softwareshould be developed in local languages and availableat low cost for wider proliferation of ICT to benefitthe people at large and thus paving the way towards‘ Digital Unite and Knowledge for all’ and arrest thesprawling Digital Divide.

A number of initiatives have been taken towardsdevelopment of software tools and human–machineInterface systems in Indian Languages under theTechnology Development for Indian Languages(TDIL).

Resource Centres

Thirteen Resource Centres for Indian LanguageTechnology Solutions (RCILTS) have beenestablished at various educational institutes andR&D organizations covering all Indian languages todevelop niche technologies (such as OCR, TTS, Text-editors, conversion utilities, spell-checkers) forproviding IT solutions in Indian languages, buildrepository of Information Processing tools andproducts for Indian languages and technologydissemination through specialized training programs.

The technologies and products developed by theResource Centres include - Basic InformationProcessing tools e.g. text-editors, spell checkers,fonts, keyboard drivers, bi-lingual dictionaries andMorph-Analyzers for all Indian languages; coreoptical character recognition (OCR) engines forseven Indian languages (Hindi, Marathi, Bangla,Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam); messagingsystems in 2 Indian languages (Hindi, Malayalam);online English to Hindi machine translation system;and text-to-speech systems (Hindi, Bangla,Malayalam, Tamil, Oriya).

Achievements during 2004-2005

Content Development & IT Localization Network

COIL Net (COntent Development & IT LocalizationNetwork), aimed at taking the benefits ofdevelopments in Information Technology to themasses in the Hindi speaking region has beeninitiated in the Hindi Speaking states of UttarPradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand,Uttranchal, Bihar and Chattisgarh. These centreshave developed content and websites in Hindi.Deployment of localized test-beds specific to eachstate is also being undertaken.

Many software applications and content havealready been developed in Hindi and deployed in thedomain of e-health, e-education, e-tourism, etc., atvarious places.

International Summit on Localization

International Summit on Localization was organizedby the Department of Information Technology during8-10 November, 2004 to address issues such asStandardization, Localization Tools and LinguisticResources, Terminology, Transliteration andTranslation. The Summit also focused onimplementation issues in Localization in context ofMultilingual India.

Standardization

Unicode Standards are widely being used by theIndustry for the development of multilingualsoftware. Most of the recommended changes havebeen incorporated in the latest version of theUnicode Standard to ensure adequaterepresentation of Indic scripts in the Standard.Initiatives have been taken to include Vediccharacters and symbols, ancient Indian scripts andminorities scripts in the Unicode Standard.

Evaluation and Benchmarking of the Indian

Language Technology Tools

Testing, evaluation and benchmarking of the Indianlanguage technology tools is essential for wideracceptance of the Indian language technologyproducts. The Standardization Testing and QualityCertification (STQC) directorate of DIT has beendesignated as the third party for evaluation of thelanguage technologies tools and products. TwoSTQC IT centres have been established in Delhi andBangalore for this purpose.

TDIL Portal

The TDIL website is bi-lingual (English and Hindi) andcontains information about the TDIL Programme, itsinitiatives and achievements. The Unicode have beenused in the website to enable content search inHindi. It provides access to Indian scriptures, articles,reviews, and online machine translation from Englishto Hindi and vice versa. During the last one year, thenumber of hits on this website have increased. Thewebsite also provides downloadable software andtools in Indian Languages viz. Plug-in, IndianLanguage Word Processors, NLP tools, NLPResource for Windows/Linux. The Website providesfree downloadable Unicode compliant open type

fonts, font converter and other language processingutilities.

Gyanaudyog

Gyanaudyog project has been initiated at BanasthaliVidyapith in the State of Rajasthan to promote SmallOffice and Home Entrepreneurship in the area ofInformation Technology for catalyzing IT enabledservices (ITES), specifically, content creation,content localization and application softwarelocalization, remote customer interaction services,computer aided design with support for technologymonitoring, financial support guidance and marketinformation.

Newsletter of Indian Language Technologies

The VishwaBharat@tdil is a quarterly newsletterwhich provides information on products, tools,services, activities, developments, achievements inthe area of Indian language technologies. It serves asa means of sharing ideas among technologydevelopers. It creates awareness in the societyregarding the availability of language technologyresources. The news letter are also available on TDILweb-site as well as on a CD.

Indian language Technology Resource Centres

The important technologies developed by the IndianLanguage Technology Resource Centres includes theOptical Character Recognition (OCR), SpellCheckers, Bi-lingual Dictionaries, Machine AidedTranslation System (MAT), etc. The technologiesdeveloped by the Resource Centres are consolidatedin the packaged form of Basic InformationProcessing Kit (BIPK) and Optical CharacterRecognition Systems (OCR) in all major Indianlanguages. The BIPK consists of word processorsintegrated with spell checkers, text editors and built-in dictionaries.

New Initiatives

Intelligent Cognitive System

A new project in the domain of Intelligent Cognitivesystem named Knowledge UNDerstanding andAcquisition of Languages, INferencingandInterpretation (KUNDALINI) is being initiated todevelop methodologies and tools for knowledgerepresentation, extraction, mining, gisting,inferencing and interpretation; knowledgeframeworks and access mechanisms based onIndian tradition; and Sanskrit based NetworkingLanguage as Machine Translation Interlingua.

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Cooperation for Localization and Open

Technologies

A new initiative named Cooperation for Localizationand Open Technologies (C-LoT) is being initiated tocoordinate development of open source software,open standards, open systems aiming at producingaffordable and user-motivating PCs and ICTappliances. Jana –Bharati the flagship project todevelop localized GNU environment and applicationbased on LINUX operating system has beeninitiated. A project on ‘ Linguistic ResourceDevelopment’ is also being proposed.

Human Resource Development in Language

Technology

A proposal for introducing Master’s level and PostGraduate Diploma level courses in the domain ofKnowledge Engineering, Computational Linguisticsand Software Localization at various institutions inIndia is being initiated. The project aims at developingtrained manpower in the filed of LanguageTechnology to overcome the present shortage ofmanpower in this field.

Indian Language Technology Resource Centres

Phase II

In the second phase of the Resource Centres (RC – Phase-II) integration and enhancement of thetechnologies developed in the Phase-I would beinitiated. Development of the niche technologiessuch as Cross-lingual Information Retrieval (CLIR),Speech-to-speech Translation System (S2S) andLocalization technology would be taken up.

Development and incubation of speech technologiessuch as speech translation and speech synthesis arebeing initiated. A futuristic speech technologyprogramme with the basic objectives of _unlimited-vocabulary spoken translation systems and fullyonline understanding and generation of integratednatural speech will be initiated.

Rajbhasha Information Technology

Application Programme (RITAP)

Rajbhasha Information Technology ApplicationProgramme (RITAP) has been initiated on therecommendations of Parliamentary Committee onOfficial Languages. This programme is aimed atdevelopment and deployment of softwareapplications in Hindi and other Indian languages inGovernment sector.

Gaon Gyan Kendra (Village Knowledge Center)

The Gaon Gyan Kendra (GGK) project is based on thelocal agricultural communities demand forinformation on sustainable agricultural practices,credit, marketing of produce and value addition byagriculture experts. The aim of the project isknowledge delivery to the villagers, and therebyachieving their proactive participation in theknowledge economy.

The GGK centre will be established with the latest ITinfrastructures to provide access to information ofthe interest to the villagers like Agriculture, Health,Education, Empowerment Entrepreneurship,Vocational Training, etc.

Woman Actuated Network of Information

Technology Applications (WANITA)

The Department of Information Technology alongwith UNIDO (United Nations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization) is proposing a new scheme forempowerment of Indian rural women throughawareness about vocational skills and educationusing IT as tool. The project will seek essentially toempower the poor, small town women to make useof the choices available in the economic, social andpolitical spheres through people centred andsustainable development initiatives. This will beachieved by making poor women working in existingSelf Help Groups aware of the potential of using IT asa tool to enhance their skills and productivity andmarketing channels.

Digital Library

Digital Library of India (DLI) Initiative was launched inthe year 2002 with the objective of digitization andindexing the vast Indic heritage knowledge and toprovide a test bed that will support other research

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domains such as scanning techniques, opticalcharacter recognition, Information Retrieval, StorageArea Network, etc.

Under the Digital Library Initiative of India (DLI), sofar 21 Scanning Centres and 4 Regional Mega-Centres have been established across the country.The Mega-Centres are involved in the developmentof niche technologies such as Cross-lingualInformation Access, Multi-lingual Crawler, AutomaticSearch indexing tools and Multi-media Interface forphysically challenged. The Scanning Centres areinvolved in the Digitization of Heritage Knowledgeembedded in manuscripts, palm-leaves and rarebooks. So far, 84,000 books have been scanned andcropped and OCRed in various Indian Languages viz.English, Telugu, Tamil, Sanskrit and Kannada. TheDevelopment of niche technologies have started at 4Mega-centres.

Industrial Electronics Promotion

Programme

During the year, the project Design andDevelopment of Comprehensive Facility for ThermalManagement of Electronic Equipment wassuccessfully completed at SAMEER. The project hascreated an unique facility for design, evaluation andoffering consultancy services to the interestedagencies with regard to the thermal management,packaging, etc., of electronic PCBs and equipment.A Workshop was organized for dissemination of theinformation at Bangalore and was attended by a largenumber of participants from the industries,academic and R&D institutes.

The General Purpose Control System (GPCS) projectwas formally closed on its successful completion.The technology of GPCS developed by C-DAC,Thiruvananthapuram for use in a variety of processindustries was transferred to industry duringELITEX’04 for commercial production.

After study of various sensing methods, mostsuitable method was selected for fabrication ofprototype of Sensor System under the project onDevelopment of a Slab Gap Detection Sensor foridentification of slabs in Steel Plant Project at RDCIS,Ranchi. After completion of pilot mills trials, theprototype is undergoing field trials at steel plant. Theproject is likely to be completed by March, 2005.

A detailed project report was prepared and systemspecifications were finalized for the project on

Development of an Affordable Supply ChainManagement (SCM) System for SMEs at C-DAC,Hyderabad. A national Workshop on the SCMtechnology was organized and feedback fromindustries and likely end users was obtained forincorporation in the system requirementspecifications. The software development for fourmodules of SCM is in progress.

The first prototype electronic kit in form of a FlutedRoller Instrument for quick identification ofmechanical deficiency in ring frame used in textilemills was developed and tested in thelaboratory/field trials to help increase yarn productionat ATIRA, Ahmedabad. Fabrication of two moreprototype instruments was under progressed.

The development of a PC based automated systemin form of an instrument to measure dirt countpresent in the paper using machine visiontechnology was developed under the project onPaper Dirt Speck Analyser at CEERI, Chennai. Theprototype system is undergoing testing. The projectis likely to be completed by March, 2005 andexpected to help the paper industry to enhancequality of their final product using this technology.

The development of modeling tools for IT basedtechniques for acoustic sea floor classification wasprogressed at NIO, Goa. The modeling tool beingdeveloped is a high end software package that willhelp in understanding the characteristics of oceanbeds thus eliminating the need for actual collectionof sediments samples from the seafloor.

After completion of design work, prototypefabrication work has progressed in the project fordevelopment of an Automatic Counterfeit CurrencyDetection System at CSIO, Chandigarh. Testing andtrials will be carried out in consultation with useragencies. The design and development of prototypesystem was progressed in the Automated LiquidMedia Dispensing System Project at CSIO,Chandigarh.

Design and implementation of Graphical UserInterface, Web based Feature Modeler, ComputerAided Process Planning and CommunicationModules were completed in the project on WebNC -Internet based Collaborative Design andManufacturing System for Intelligent CNC Machiningat IIT, Bombay. After completion of CNC coding andsystem integration, this software package will be

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subjected to beta testing by users for evaluation andfeedback for further fine-tuning.

Two new projects a) Development of PumpEfficiency Monitoring System using state-of-artInstrumentation and Information Technology byCSIO, Chennai and b) Development of Low VoltageReal time Controller for Series Hybrid Electric ThreeWheeler Vehicle were initiated in November, 2004.Another new project on Development of MEMSbased Capacitive Accelerometer by IIT-Kharagpur isunder consideration.

Efforts were also made to explore new projectproposals in the thrust areas identified by theWorking group on Industrial Applications. The newproject proposals likely to be taken up are: Setting upof Resource Centre on Real Time System at C-DAC,Thiruvananthapuram, RF Drying System for leatherindustry, New Drafting System for Textile industry,Phase-II of the Hybrid Layered ManufacturingSystem, Robotic Telescopic Manipulator forExplosive Handling, IT applications in Steel, Textileand other core sectors on industries.

Convergence Communication, Internet

and Broadband Technologies

Convergence technology as the driving force,integrating the hitherto distinct Information,Communication and Entertainment (ICE)technologies, has given rise to a new range ofbusiness opportunities for the manufacturers andservice providers in the fields of InformationTechnology, Communications and Broadcasting.With the growth of 25 – 30% achieved in thesesectors in India, the convergence technologies holdgreat promise. To sustain this growth and meet thechallenges of globalization, there is a continuingneed to invest in quality infrastructure, promoteR&D efforts in convergence communications,Internet and broadband technologies, and addressthe related policy issues.

The activities of the Department in this sector areorganized with the following broad objectives:

• Promote R&D in the areas of ConvergenceCommunication, Internet and BroadbandTechnologies

• Promote commercial exploitation of thetechnologies developed

• Initiatives for the growth of Internet and Internetderived services

• Promote activities aimed towards cooperative

programmes with International bodies such asITU, UN-ICT Task Force, WSIS, ICANN, APNIC,European Union, etc.

R&D Activities

The Department provides financial support toprojects/schemes for undertaking research/development in the areas of Convergence,Communication, Internet and BroadbandTechnologies. A number of academic institutions,industries and research labs spread all over thecountry have been involved in the programme.

Following are important developments in progress,as example projects

• Research in broadband wireless accesstechnologies and deployment of Wi-Fi protocolbased campus network

• Digital Connectivity through Amateur Radio toassist in Disaster Management

• Wireless Communication for Underground Mines(including Trapped Miner Communication)

• Secure Hybrid Network (wireline and wireless)and Managed Security System

• Special Internet Protocol (SIP) based IP Telephony• A technology demonstrator for VOIP Telephony• Web based Agricultural Expert Advice

Dissemination system.

Over the last 5 years, technologies which weresuccessfully developed and commercialized are :

• TETRA standard based Digital Trunking RadioSystem for professional voice and dataapplications

• Call Centre equipment and software withmultilingual capabilities

• Set Top Box technology for Internet access viaCable TV / DTH

• IP Telephone• Bluetooth short range wireless communication

adapters• Portable X-Ray baggage system• Explosive Detection System• Satellite based Vehicle Tracking and Management

Systems• Non-linear Junction Detector• Electronic Stethoscope• Velocity Panel for small caliber projectiles• Automated Dependent Surveillance system for

Civil Aviation• GPS Receivers for Defence applications• DVD Subtitling System.

The focus of development in the coming years willbe on the following:

• Next generation wireless technology basedcommunications

• Low cost Communication and computing accessdevices

• Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Hybrid Network deployments forimportant applications

• Developments in VOIP technology and IPv6protocol software tools

• Security devices.

Initiatives for Internet growth

Following initiatives have been taken for promotinggrowth of Internet during the year :

• A National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) hasbeen set up in order to provide cost-effectiveInternet services with quality of service (QOS).

• .IN Network Information Centre has been set upas .IN Registry for increased proliferation ofInternet domain names under .IN category withmarket focus, following the announcement ofnew policy in this regard.

• Prepared a report on new Internet protocol IPv6migration road map in India; its implementation isin progress.

• Prepared a paper on Rural Services forproliferation of Internet in Rural areas.

• Provided inputs for Broadband Policy 2004concerning NIXI, .IN Domain, delicensing offrequency spectrum, proliferation of DTH andVSAT based services, etc.

International Cooperation

The Department provided interface for the followingInternational organizations, and cooperationbetween India and the relevant agencies in this area

• World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). Thesubjects handled are Internet Governance,Intellectual Property, Cyber Security, ICT forbridging Digital Divide, etc.

• Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to theInternational Corporation for Assigned Names andNumbers (ICANN)

• UNICT Task Force for development anddeployment of ICT tools for bridging the DigitalDivide

• Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)• Component of Internet and Internet based

services in International TelecommunicationsUnion (ITU)

• As part of the International Cooperation with othercountries under the Protocols signed by theDepartment, projects proposed to be supportedunder Indo-EU Cooperation under Framework FP6have been prepared in the areas of ERNET/GEANTconnectivity, QOS for 4G Mobile Networks andIPv6 tools.

New Initiatives

Broadband Policy 2004

The Broadband policy was announced by theGovernment in October 2004. The new policyencourages creation and growth of infrastructurethrough various access technologies which canmutually co-exist, like optical fibre, digital subscriberlines, cable TV network, satellite and wirelesstechnologies. The Department provided inputsrelating to NIXI, proliferation of DTH and VSAT basedservices, delicensing of 2.40 to 2.48 GHz band forlow power outdoor use, delicensing of 5.15 to 5.35GHz band for indoor and outdoor use of low powerWi-Fi systems, etc.

New Policy for .IN Internet domain name and

National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

Internet domain names play a key role in providing anidentity to the user in the Internet space. ICANN(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names andNumbers) has allocated .IN as the country code toplevel domain (ccTLD) for India. In order to promoteand proliferate the .IN domain name, theGovernment decided to revamp the .IN domainname Registry in India to provide greater thrust toits activities. The new policy aims at adopting aliberal and market friendly approach to register largenumber of .IN ccTLD names. The responsibility ofoperating the .IN Registry has been entrusted to NIXIto implement the new policy framework for .INDomain Name by creating a .IN Registry, maintaining.IN domain and ensuring its operational stability,reliability and security. The .IN registration under thenew policy has been launched on January 1, 2005.

The Department, in association with Internet ServiceProviders Association of India (ISPAI), has promotedthe National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) as a notfor profit organisation under Section 25 of the IndianCompanies Act to promote improved Internetservices in the country. As part of theimplementation plan of NIXI, four Internet ExchangeNodes have been set up and operationalised atNoida (Delhi), Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in thepremises of the Software Technology Parks of India.

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As many as 40 Internet Service Providers (ISPs),including major Class A ISPs, have joined NIXI asmembers.

To address the problem of excessive cost ofconnectivity for smaller (Class B and C) ISPsoperating in secondary cities, the Department isconsidering a proposal to set up, in partnership withthe State governments, and with the ISPs as stakeholders, a second tier of NIXI hubs in a few selectedprovincial capitals.

Migration to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)

In order to meet the growing needs of Internetaddress space, improve on security and quality ofInternet service and mobility on Inter Protocol (IP),migration to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) fromthe current IPv4 is taking place worldwide. In India,likewise, a Roadmap towards implementation ofIPv6 has been evolved with an objective to achievethe migration by 2006. A project on ‘Establishmentof IPv6 enabled Test Bed’ by ERNET India and IIT,Kanpur is under implementation. A few otherprojects for software tools development anddeployment are being initiated by the Department. AWorkshop on the subject has also been heldinvolving various stake holders.

An inter-agency implementation group under theChairmanship of Secretary, Department ofInformation Technology has been set up to overseeits implementation.

Transport and Power Electronics

Programme

During the year, the developmental activities in theproject on Custom Power Devices were completedand the technology was successfully demonstratedto the end user in the field trials carried out at a miniSteel Plant in Calicut. After successful completion ofthis project, the competent authority has approvedits formal closure. This state of the art powerelectronics technology developed by the C-DAC,Thiruvananthapuram has been transferred to anindustry for commercial exploitation and dialoguesare being held with more industries who have showninterest in taking the technology.

The technology of Flexible AC Transmission System(FACTS) Controller was successfully demonstratedunder the FACTS Controller project implemented byBHEL with financial support from the Power GridCorporation and the Department of InformationTechnology. This state of art power electronics

system was commissioned on the 400 KVtransmission line between Ballabhgarh and Kanpur.With application of the FACTS controller technology,enhancement in the power transmission capabilityof existing power line with minimum investment hasbeen demonstrated to the end user for the first timein the country through indigenous R&D efforts.

The project on Distribution Automation forThiruvananthapuram city was completed aftersuccessful demonstration of the technology forautomation of power distribution system. Thistechnology developed by C-DAC,Thiruvananthapuram has been transferred to anindustry for its commercial exploitation. Some otherindustries have shown interest in taking thetechnology of some components of DistributedAutomation System.

After installation and commissioning of the fieldequipment, the integration of Power Stations II and IIwith Power Station I was completed in the project onDevelopment of Scalable Distributed IntelligentSCADA for Retrofit and IT enabling of Hydel PowerPlant and its implementation in Teesta Canal for Hydel Power Stations by C-DAC,Thiruvananthapuram. The system stabilizationactivities are being carried out for demonstration oftechnology of Scalable Distributed Intelligent SCADAfor Retrofit and IT enabling of Hydel Power Plant.

A new project on National Mission on PowerElectronics Technology has been initiated inNovember 2004. The project aims at strengtheningof the infrastructure and R&D base in the country inpower electronics field to make India a significantplayer internationally in next 5 years.

In the transportation areas, after completion ofsystem acceptance test and all other remainingactivities, the project on Automatic FleetManagement System (AFMS) for DTC Buses wassuccessfully completed. The technology of AFMSdeveloped in this project by CMC Ltd., Hyderabad isbeing commercialized.

The project on development of Vector Controlled ACMotor Drive for Hybrid Electric Vehicles have beencompleted after satisfactory conclusion of theendurance test of two prototype Hybrid Electric Busimplemented by Ashok Leyland Ltd., Chennai with C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram. The achievementsmade under this project jointly funded by theDepartment of Scientific and Industrial Research and

the DIT are comparable with the development takingplace internationally in the field of Hybrid Vehicles.

The development activities related to hardware andfirmware up gradation of ATC compatible controller,traffic simulation software and optimization model,preparation of Central Control Room and upgradation of street furniture, surveys for impactanalysis of traffic scenario before implementation ofArea Traffic Control System at Pune city werecompleted. This project is being implemented by C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram with support from PuneMunicipal Corporation. The installation andcommissioning of the ATCS controllers and otherequipment are likely to be completed by March,2005 at 36 traffic junctions. Thereafter field trials willbe completed by June, 2005.

A prototype system was designed and developed byC-DAC, Mohali under the project on Development ofBlack Box for Automobiles. The system integrationand testing activities are being progressed.

Dialogues were held with the academic and R&Dinstitutes for evolving new project proposals intransport and power electronics field in the identifiedthrust areas. A project proposal on Hybrid lightCommercial Vehicle/Mini Bus for small townapplications is expected to be evolved during nextyear.

Technology Development Council (TDC)

TDC supports R&D initiatives in emerging areas ofInformation Technology towards developingcompetitive advantage. Multi application smartcards, open source software, ubiquitous computing,security systems, and supporting technologyincubation at IITs and IISc are some of the initiativesunder this programme.

Multi Application Smart Card Initiative

Multi-application Smart Card (MASC) is an emergingarea having significant potential for deployment in IDrelated applications as well as for paymentapplications. Common Standards for Multi-application Smart Cards had been formulated. As thenext step, implementation of a few test bed/technology development projects are underway.

The Department has financially supporteddevelopment of core technologies for Smart CardOperating System for Transport Applications(SCOSTA) standard. Two projects namely‘Development of an OS for Smart Cards’ and ‘Testing

Tools for and Extensions of SCOSTA’ have beensuccessfully completed at IIT, Kanpur. The Ministryof Road Transport and NIC are using the OS. Furtherdevelopment of SCOSTA has been initiated at SCL,Mohali. Several State Governments are introducingSmart Card based vehicle registration / drivinglicenses.

A project on ‘Smart Card based Computerization ofAccounts for Small Business Enterprises’ is underimplementation at C-DAC, Kolkata and project titled‘Multi Application Smart Card based PaymentSystem’ is under implementation jointly at theInstitute for Development and Research in BankingTechnology (IDRBT), Hyderabad and IIT, Bombay.The preparation of customized Common ElectronicPurse Specifications (CEPS) in the Indian context,secure operation procedures, and key managementsystem have been completed; and two phases ofpilot test for CEPS/ EMV for MASC have been carriedout.

Innovation Promotion in IT

In the knowledge-based economy of the 21stcentury, innovation and its promotion throughvarious models have become key to our strategytowards accelerating the emergence of India as R&Dhub, and innovation ‘ happening place’ of the world.A series of initiatives have been taken in this regard.

To build-around technical capabilities available at ourpremier institutions, namely IITs and IISc, a nationaltechno-entrepreneurship support programme hasbeen designed and supported at six premierinstitutions. As a result, these institutions haveadopted a framework for technology incubation, andare encouraging faculty and students to considerentreprenuership as a viable option. Six newcompanies have already been provided the financialsupport under this programme. These companieswould be a role model for others to emulate.

As a part of the curriculum, over 200,000 studentprojects are taken every year in the areas ofElectronics, Information Technology and Computersat B.Tech, MCA and M.Tech levels. Many collegesand academic institutions lack the wherewithal todefine, guide, and execute student projects in asystematic manner. As a result, many studentprojects are repetitive and incomplete. It is proposedto start a pilot project to establish a virtual platform toassist students in their project work.

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Bioinformatics

A Bioinformatics Resources and Application Facility(BRAF) has been created at C-DAC to equip theirsupercomputing facility ‘Param Padma’ forbioinformatics research by various users on a shared-basis.

AyuSoft

Ayurveda is a unique discipline of Indian medicalsystem. A project entitled ‘AyuSoft’ with C-DAC asthe lead implementing agency and a set ofcollaborating institutions having inter-disciplinarydomain knowledge related to Ayurveda has beeninitiated. The objective of the project is to developauthentic, interactive and intelligent software toassist medical practitioners and researchers.

Vehicle Underside Scanner (VUS)

Subsequent to the attack on Parliament Housethrough entry of unauthorized vehicles, a project todevelop vehicle authorization system and a vehicleunder-carriage inspection system was taken up at IIT,Delhi to check entry of authorized vehicles,authorized drivers and to inspect hidden objects, ifany, in the underside of vehicle. The prototypesystem was tested at the Cabinet Secretariat. Theprocess of Transfer of Technology is in progress.

Medical Electronics Program

Linear Accelerators for Medical andStrategic Applications

One of the major projects being implemented underthe Medical Electronics program is a Jai VigyanMission mode project for the development anddeployment of 6 MV Medical Linear Accelerators forCancer Therapy. Linear Accelerators offer one of themost preferred modes of treatment of the dreadeddisease of cancer by tele therapy. As per the normslaid down by World Health Organization (WHO),around 1000 linear accelerators are required to tacklethe disease in India. These machines are expensiveand are to be imported. At present, there are onlyaround 50 linacs in operation in India. Even these arepredominantly confined to major cities. To combatthis problem, the DIT has initiated the developmentof a state-of-the-art integrated 6 MV medical linearaccelerator system including 3D Treatment PlanningSystem and a Virtual Simulator by a consortiumcomprising SAMEER, Mumbai; CSIO, Chandigarhand 2 industrial partners viz., Panacea MedicalTechnologies, Bangalore and TSG Integrations, NewDelhi. The Jai Vigyan project is being implemented intwo phases with a total outlay of Rs. 14.95 crore.The first phase covers the development anddeployment of 2 systems and based on the feedback from the operation of these two systems in thefield in second phase, 4 more machinesincorporating modifications, if any, are to bedeployed in the field. The first machine under thisprogram is now undergoing quality assurance testsfor enabling its mandatory qualification by theAtomic Energy Regulatory Board before it is shiftedto Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences(MGIMS), Wardha for installation andcommissioning. The fabrication of the secondmachine is in progress and all major sub-assembliesfor this are ready. The assembly and testing of thesecond machine is expected to be completed duringthe year 2005.

Development of Braille Literacy in IndianLanguages

This project also has been initiated under Jai VigyanNational S&T mission program. Under this project, anumber of hardware and software products havebeen developed. These include a refreshable tactilereader that enables blind persons to read any file in acomputer. The software converts the word/text filesinto Braille format which are then fed to the devicewhich activates the piezo electric elements to

generate the Braille dots. This can be used for any ofthe 12 major Indian languages and English. Braille toText, Text to Braille software, Direct Braille Keyboard,Electronic Class Room for the blind, an ElectronicLibrary for the blind using the tactile devices areother products that have been developed. Thesoftware and hardware products developed underthe project have been deployed in 30 blindschools/institutions all over the country and arereported to be working satisfactorily.

Handheld Scanner Based Hindi and English Text Reading Machine for Visually Impaired Persons

The project envisages to develop a Light WeightPortable Hand Held Scanner that will be interfacedwith OCR and Text to Speech Software in English andHindi to enable blind persons to read/consult normalprinted text books. The first prototype of the HandHeld device is now ready and is being integratedwith the OCR and Text to Speech in Hindi. Thesystem will be offered for feed back and evaluationby blind persons during the year 2005.

Information Technology for Internet Accessand Rehabilitation for Visually Handicapped

The project aims to develop software packages thatcould enable blind persons to browse web pages orread their e-mails with the help of the Tactile Deviceor a Text to Speech System. The project isprogressing satisfactorily.

Design of Closed Loop AnesthesiaDelivery System

The first prototype of closed loop anesthesia deliverysystem has been developed and is currentlyundergoing clinical trials at PGIMER, Chandigarhunder actual Operation Theatre environment.

Development of Radiation Field Analyzer forRadiation Treatment by Linear Accelerators

The Radiation Field Analyzer (RFA) is an essentialaccessory for the linear accelerator units which areused for the treatment of cancer patients. Currently,such systems are being imported from abroad. Theproject on the development of radiation field analyzerhas been initiated at Variable Energy CyclotronCentre (VECC), Kolkata. Efforts are underway tocommercialize the same as soon as the technologyin proven.

Telemedicine

Information and Communication Technology hasenabled major potential contributions in a large

number of economic and social sectors.Telemedicine is one such area, which utilizestelecommunications for affecting specializedconsultations for diagnosis and treatment ofdiseases at a distance. India’s more than one billionpopulation, is predominantly rural and distributed indistant geographical locations. While 70% of ourpopulation lives in rural India, 90% of secondary andtertiary care facilities are located in the cities andtowns, far away from the rural India. Telemedicine, amajor application of IT, helps patients in rural anddistant areas to avail timely consultations of

specialist doctors without going through the ordealof traveling long distances.

The Department of Information Technology, as afacilitator, has taken initiatives for development oftechnology, initiation of pilot schemes andstandardisation of Telemedicine in the country. Thepilot schemes take into account the diverse issuesrelated to currently available telecommunicationinfrastructure, specialist availability, geographicalconsiderations, etc.

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Mercury - Telemedicine

Sushrut - Hospital Information System

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Highlights of the on-goingTelemedicine programs

The Department has supported development oftelemedicine software systems by C-DAC. Underthis project, technology developed has been used forconnecting three premier medical institutions, viz.,SGPGI-Lucknow, AIIMS-New Delhi and PGIMER-Chandigarh; using ISDN connectivity. These premierinstitutions are in turn being connected with medicalcolleges at Cuttack, Rohtak and Shimla respectively.The technology developed is now being deployed forsetting up other telemedicine systems in thecountry.

Telemedicine for diagnosis and Monitoring of tropicaldiseases in West Bengal using low speed WAN,developed by Webel (Kolkata) and IIT-Kharagpur, hasbeen installed in School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkataand two district hospitals. About a thousandconsultations have already taken place over thisnetwork. Two more projects for setting up oftelemedicine facilities at five referral hospitals andnine district hospitals using the above technology arealso under implementation.

The above technology is also being employed to setup a telemedicine network in the state of Tripurawhere two referral hospitals in the capital Agartalaare being connected with four sub-divisionalhospitals.

An Oncology Network for providing telemedicineservices in cancer detection, treatment, pain relief,patient follow-up and continuity of care in peripheralhospitals (nodal centres) of Regional Cancer Centre(RCC) has been established. The telemedicinenetwork utilizes Internet connectivity in addition toleased lines. The project was implemented by C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram and RCC. More than 4000patient consultations have been made till January2005 using the network. The project is now beingupgraded to include high bandwidth VSATconnectivity and other advanced features in tele-consultation.

Another project for Telemedicine and TelehealthEducation facilities is being set up in Kerala using thetechnology developed by C-DAC, Pune where threespecialty medical hospitals at Medical CollegeHospital, Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of MedicalScience and Technology; and the RCC; are being

linked up with 4 District/ Rural Hospitals. ContinuingMedical Education (CME) is also a part of thisproject.

To provide specialty health services to remote areasof North Eastern States of India, another initiative ofsetting up telemedicine centres is underwayconnecting super specialty Apollo Hospital, Delhiwith hospital in the States of Mizoram and Sikkimwith technology developed by C-DAC. TheDepartment of Information Technology had earlierfacilitated setting up telemedicine system at NagaHospital, Kohima which is connected with superspecialty hospital Inderprastha Apollo Hospital, NewDelhi for consultations. In addition to providing tele-consultation, it is also being used for continuing tele-medical education of doctors/paramedics.

Design and development of an advanced hospitalmanagement system and its implementation atMahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences atSevagram is under implementation by C-DAC,Noida. The objective is to demonstrate improvementin patient care by providing efficient and timelyservices through this computerized hospitalmanagement system.

A project on ‘Development and Implementation ofHuman Resources Portal’ for Department of Health,Government of Kerala and jointly funded by the Government of Kerala and the Department of Information Technology has beeninitiated and is being implemented by C-DAC,Thiruvananthapuram.

An exercise has been carried out to suggest aframework for IT Infrastructure for Health (ITIH) toefficiently address all information needs of differentstakeholders (government, hospitals, insurancecompanies, patients, vendors and others) in thehealthcare industry. The framework addresses to thekey elements of Standards, Legal Framework andMedical Informatics Education. A document, theFramework for Information Technology Infrastructurefor Health in India, has been prepared and is beingwidely disseminated through the Department ofInformation Technology web-site for feedback andcomments from the different stakeholders andpublic.

To streamline the establishment of telemedicinecentres and standardize services available from

different telemedicine centres, ‘RecommendedGuidelines and Standards for Practice ofTelemedicine in India’, has been prepared by theDepartment of Information Technology throughdeliberations of a Technical Working Group. It isaimed at enhancing interoperability among thevarious Telemedicine systems being set-up in thecountry.

Applications in Water, Agriculture and

Rural Development Sector

Water Sector

Information Technology plays an important roletowards betterment of human life. IT has variousapplications in water sector. It has a vast potential inevolving suitable Decision Support System (DSS) inWaste Water Treatment Plant and Canal IrrigationSystem to improve the efficiency of the plant andbring savings in energy, create better environmentconditions in waste water disposal and efficient useof water, a very important resource.

Achievements during 2004-05Automation of Okhla Waste Water Treatment

Plant

The project on Automation of Okhla Waste WaterTreatment Plant, aimed at developing technology forautomation and bringing in the savings in energy andcreate better environmental conditions in wastewater disposal, has progressed and was monitoredclosely. The necessary system hardware andsoftware were installed and commissioned. JointOn-site Acceptance Testing (OSAT), an importantmilestone in the project implementation, has beencompleted by ECIL, Delhi Jal Board and the DIT. TheSystem is awaiting handing over / taking overprocess.

IT for Improved Management of Canal Irrigation

The project, Andhra Pradesh Irrigation InformationSystem, in the area of canal control andcommunication system has been completed andhanded over to the user.

Khadakwasla Canal Control and CommunicationProject Phase II: The migration of applicationsoftware developed under Phase I of the project tolatest platform is complete with all the modulesalready installed in Main Control Centre. Theapplication software has been accepted by theimplementing agency. The automatic gate controlsystem has been implemented at all the identified

gate control sites. The user training and orientationhas been completed and the system is awaiting useracceptance test.

Rural and Agriculture

Under the project, Integrated Automation of TeaProcessing and Model Tea Factory, construction ofthe Model Tea Factory (MTF) has been completed, allmachinery for tea processing has been procured andinstalled, including computers for automation.Simulated testing and fine tuning was done and allcabling including LAN was completed. Softwaredevelopment has been completed and testing at siteas well as commissioning of the MTF wascompleted. Trials with tea leaves were made and afull load demonstration was made. History data is tobe collected to cryatalise the optimum parametersrequired for the four processes of tea manufacturing,viz., Withering, CTC, Fermentation, and Drying. Theresults will be disseminated to the tea industry. Theintegrated automation solution promises greatbenefit towards improvement of productivity,efficiency, energy saving and quality of themanufactured Black Tea. Experimental results wouldbe analysed with advanced IT techniques like datamining. Three workshops to disseminate the outputsof Samadhan Kendras (Rural IT centres) are plannedin Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

IPR Promotion Program

‘Intellectual Property Right (IPR)’ have been a vibrantactivity in the country in the recent past. As India is aparty to the Trade Related Aspects of IntellectualProperties (TRIPs) Agreement of WTO, theconcerned Ministries of the Government of India,have been pursuing for either putting in place a newAct or issuing necessary Amendments of relevantIPR Acts and notifying the rules and enforcementsrelated to them so as to conform to the TRIPs.Notable in this regard are - The Semiconductor ICLayout Designs Act 2000, The Patents Acts 1970 asamended through an Ordinance dated 26.12.04. TheOrdinance amends the Indian Patent Act 1970 for thethird time to introduce product patent protectionregime for all technologies. The Ordinance alsoissues further clarifications relating to patenting ofsoftware related inventions when they havetechnical application to industry or are in combinationwith hardware. Again, India being signatory to thePatent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), large number ofpatent applications from abroad made India as one ofthe ‘Designated Country’ and Indian inventors also

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have started to appreciate cost effectiveness andease of PCT route for filing patents internationally.As regards Copyright Act, a core group is deliberatingto incorporate WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) andWIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT)in the Indian Copyright Act, 1957.

The IPR culture in India is, at present inadequate andcalls for a focussed efforts for increasing IPRawareness, training, facilitation for obtaining techno-legal ownership and market exploitations. The IPRCell in Department of IT made concerted efforts toenhance the awareness of national and internationalIPR developments in the ICT sector. Areas speciallyfocused were - i) to create awareness and imparttraining ; ii) to provide promotional and facilitatorsupport for enhancing IPR portfolio of the country ;iii) to develop tools, augment knowledge databasesand expertise to provide valued-added TechnologyAlert based on Patent Search System (TAPS), so asto assist technology assessment, development /acquisition and to arrive at investment decisions; andiv) to respond to IPR needs of the digital era.

Achievement

Towards enhancing IPR awareness and impartingtraining, a PG Diploma Course on IPR in a e-learningmode for wider public outreach has been sponsoredand initiated at Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.Workshops were organized for enhancing IPRawareness amongst SME’s, researchers, academiaand ICT professionals at Jadavpur University, Kolkatain addition to separate IPR Clinics at C-DAC,Thiruvananthapuram and C-DAC, NOIDA. Threetechno-legal analysis reports on current topics werepublished in leading journals making the total of suchreports as 25. Separate IPR Manuals dealingexclusively for Electronics and IT sector wereprepared, published and distributed widely includingat ELITEX 2004. As regards IPR facilitationapplications for 12 national Patents, 6 softwareCopyrights and one Trademark were filed making thetotal number of IPR cases filed so far as 137Copyrights, 58 Patents, 28 Trademarks and 4Designs. So far, as a total of 4 Patents, 32 softwareCopyright and 4 design certificates have beenobtained.

As outcome of the DIT project, a book entitled ‘AGlimpse of the Indian E&IT Patents 2000-2003’ waspublished jointly by the Anna University and the IPRCell, DIT and was circulated in the ELITEX 2004.Proceedings of ATRIP international conference were

also published by ILI, New Delhi in form of a bookentitled ‘Legal Dimensions of Cyberspace’. A patentmapping tool to provide R&D technology roadmapsto Indian E&IT industry was developed by IIT, Kanpurand tested it for providing roadmap to R&D effortsof ITI, Naini.

Electronics Components and Materials

Development Programme

Components and Materials sector provides thecrucial infrastructure for the growth of IT andelectronics industry. In the era of liberlisation, thereis a need of continuous availability of professionalgrade components for use in high qualitymanufacturing of electronics equipment in thecountry. A number of targeted R&D programs areaimed at bridging the gap of technology in thissector. Under this programme, well identified goaloriented R&D projects are sponsored to NationalLaboratories and Educational institutes where basicinfrastructure exists.

During the year, following four new projects wererecommended for funding by the DIT:

• Development of multi-layer coatings for highdensity optical storage devices - IIT, Delhi.

• Development of liquid crystalline polymers -Advanced Study in Science and Technology IIT,Guwahati.

• Tunable microwave dielectric Materials andDevices - IISc, Bangalore.

• Development of MgO Coating by sputtering forPlasma Displays – IIT, Kanpur

In addition to these new projects, there are nineongoing projects which are in progress.

Environmental Management in Indian

Electronics Industry

Environmental Protection is imperative forsustainable development, and is the collectiveresponsibility of the global community. In order tolimit the environmental impact of the hazardousprocesses related to it, the IT and electronics sectorhas to adopt stringent environmental safetystandards. A systematic and integrated approach toenvironment is thus inescapable in the long run. Theproject on ‘Environmental Management for the ITIndustry in India’ implemented by the Department ofInformation Technology jointly with United NationDevelopment Programmes aptly addressed this.During the implementation of the first phase of thisproject, a technical guide has been preparedhighlighting the cleaner production technologies thatare available world over and the best sustainabletechnologies in the Indian context. This technicalguide has been widely circulated to a number ofinternational and national agencies and industries. Acomprehensive second phase programme forimplementation has been submitted to UNDP forconsideration.

Microelectronics and Nanotechnology

Development Programme

Microelectronics provides the basic building blocksfor the hardware of the IT, internet andcommunications revolution. The continued drivetowards miniaturization and appearance of newtechnologies like nanotechnology are expected tolead to even smaller devices enabling realization ofmore and more complex circuits on a single chip ofsilicon. The objective of this programme is to build astrong R&D base in the country covering variousaspects of microelectronics such as circuit design,process technology, discrete devices, etc. With theemergence of nanotechnology, thrust is being givento build competence at the academic institutionsand R&D laboratories on various facets ofnanotechnology covering nanomaterials,nanoelectronics devices, nanometrology, etc.

During the year, a project on design, simulation,development and fabrication of microcontroller forelectronic voting machine was initiated. Projectproposals are also being evolved in the areas ofdielectric materials for VLSI applications, siliconcarbide thin films for power devices, embedded flashmemories, etc. In the area of nanotechnology, four

projects have been initiated. These are:development of nanocrystalline silicon MEMSpressure sensor for vacuum and low pressureapplications, development of technology forquantum structures and their applications in futuristicsilicon based nanoelectronic devices, fabrication oforganic thin film transistors, and development ofquantum-well infrared photodetectors. In addition,projects have also been evolved in the area ofapplications of carbon nano-tubes for drug deliverysystems and nanometrology.

Photonics Development Programme

Photonics is an important enabling technology fordevelopment of communication and informationsectors. In the information age, technologies fortransfer of high speed and high volume data indifferent environments are extremely important.Photonics has various advantages e.g. fiber opticvolume capability, high switching and routing speed,EMI free environment, security from tapping, etc.This is on account of photon basedtransmission/switching devices. Fiber opticcommunication and networking forms the backbonefor broadband connectivity not only for ultra longdistance and metro network but even in the accessnetwork. The Department, through its PhotonicsDevelopment Programme, has sponsored projectsat various institutions to develop indigenoustechnologies and expertise in this area, coveringsystems, devices and material aspects.

A National facility for pigtailing and packaging ofphotonic devices is being set up at SAMEER-Mumbai. In the first phase, auto alignment system toalign fibers with devices for maximum coupling oflight using epoxy bonding has already been set up.This would be useful for passive photonic devicesincluding Planar Light Circuits (PLCs) built on varietyof substrates e.g. glass, lithium niobate, silica onsilicon. Trial packaging runs have been carried out onpower splitters successfully. Some of these devices(1 x 8 splitters) are also being evaluated by industry.Laser Weld system, primarily needed for activedevice packaging is also being set up.

Laser diode chips have been developed and theirprocesses e.g. mesa etching, scribing, cleaning,etc., have been optimised at CEERI-Pilani.Indigenously developed laser diode chips have beenpackaged and are being subjected to burn in tests forcharacterisation and improvement of yield. Packaged

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devices have given 60% coupling efficiency. Poweroutputs of larger than 150 mw have been obtained.

Efforts are being made at IIT-Delhi to develop anoptical amplifier system (EDFA) using indigenouslydeveloped Erbium doped fiber from CGCRI and laserdiode source from CEERI. Simulation studies of thesystem have been carried out. Flattening of gain formultichannel application are being studied using longperiod grating.

The Metallo Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE)line required for growth of quantum well structuresunder controlled conditions has been commissionedin the new lab premises at TIFR. The same is beingpurged of residual impurities before trial runs arecarried out. Trial runs are expected shortly. Quantumwell structures based on GaAs/AlGaAs and InGaAswould be tried on two-inch dia Gallium Arsenide(GaAs) wafers towards developing lasers diodeoperating at 980 nm.

At Calcutta University, use of nitrogen doping inGaSb has shown band gap reduction. The studieswould be extended to tailoring the band gap inGaAsSb as well. It is planned to undertake liquidphase epitaxial layer growth of GaSb on GaSbsubstrates as well as growth of GaIn AsSb layers.

Initial studies on polymer based photonic deviceshave been carried out using polymers as sandwichlayer between fixed and flexible electrodes atJNCASR-Bangalore. Polymer based Photo Field

Effect Transistor (FET) and Polymer based anglesensitive detectors are currently being investigatedwith a view to develop low cost sensors.

Efforts are being made at IIT-Bombay to experimentwith the concept of generating beat signalgeneration at 10 GHz by using Erbium Doped FiberAmplifier (EDFA) in the saturated mode forWavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)applications. The problem of higher losses betweencoupler and optical fiber are being tackled. Facilitiescreated at SAMEER for splicing and spectrumanalysis are being shared.

Studies on selection of proper laser source as well asrecording material are being carried out at CDIT-Thiruvananthapuram towards development ofVolume Bragg Grating (VBG). This is an extension ofavailable 2-D holographic knowledge to 3-Dholograph recordings for photonics applications forwriting gratings.

At IIT-Madras, Nanoclusters of Ti02 and Zr02 withnano metal cores of gold have been prepared andoptical limiting studies have been conducted. Somelight absorbing dyes have been synthesized andcharacterized. At IIT-Kanpur, Single Crystal Fibers(SCF) are being prepared using Laser HeatedPedestal Growth (LHPG) technique from singlecrystals of Nd:YAG and LiNb03. Process forpreparation of the powder has been standardized.Efforts are being made to control the growthparameters.

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Human Resource Development Vidya Vahini

During the year 2003-2004, Department ofInformation Technology has implemented pilotproject of ‘Vidya Vahini’ in 140 schools, 20 schoolsin each of the 7 selected districts in 6 States in thecountry. The objective of the pilot project was todemonstrate proof-of-concept and establishstandards in the areas

• Providing Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) infrastructure;

• Training of the teachers to use ICT for impartingeducation;

• Providing different learning resources, whichinclude related educational tools, coursecurriculum and other learning material.

Intranet and Internet connectivity establishedthrough Broadband VSATs at these schools wascontinued to be supported by Department ofInformation Technology. Department of Space hasprovided free transponder space segment andDepartment of Telecommunications has waived oflicence fee for providing connectivity to theseschools.

The key features of the scheme ‘Vidya Vahini’ wereincorporated by the Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment in their programme ‘ICT in Schools’.

Gyan Vahini

During the year, the project was extended to set upcampus-wide network at Allahabad University(Uttar Pradesh), Kashmir University (Jammu andKashmir) and Annamalai University (Tamilnadu). Ateach of these Universities, a hybrid networkconsisting of fibre optic backbone connecting toeach of the academic, administrative and librarybuilding was planned. A mix of technologies using

VDSL/xDSL and 802.11b technologies has beendeveloped for these centres.

Campus-wide network at Allahabad University wascompleted and made operational. A completeManagement Information System (MIS) has beenimplemented by the University on the network.The faculty and students are able to access digitallibraries and e-journals hosted on the UGC-Infonetthrough campus-wide Local Area Network.

The implementation of campus-wide network atKashmir University and Annamalai University areunder progress and expected to be completed byJune, 2005.

During the year, ERNET has signed an MOU withRajasthan University, Jaipur to design andimplement state-of-the-art campus-wide networkat their campus. Technical support was provided toManipur University, Imphal and GorakhpurUniversity, Gorakhpur to design their campus-widenetwork. The complete proposal was prepared toset up the network.

e-Learning – R&D Projects

E-Learning is imparting education using neweducational tools and communication media. Theseeducation tools can be effectively used to enrichthe courseware with multimedia features.Advances in digital electronics have made e-earningpossible because digital data can be accessedrandomly; retrieved fast; manipulated; requires lessstorage space, etc. Educational tools make use ofthis digital revolution – digitization of thecourseware rich in multimedia features and itscommunication using Internet. During this year2004-05, following e-Learning R&D projects havebeen processed:

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Web Based Intelligent Interactive Tutoring at

IIT, Delhi

Web based online courses on intelligent InteractiveTutoring platform for three Engineering subjects –engineering mechanics, structural analysis, bridgeengineering have been developed and madeavailable free online to the students of allEngineering colleges. The courses are available athttp://www.ncst.ernet.in/vidyakash and also athttp://paniit.iitd.ac.in/webiit.

Multimodel Digital Distance Education for

IT and other critical Technologies

School of Education Technology, JadavpurUniversity is developing appropriate coursewareengineering methodologies for web enabledmultimedia multi-model courseware in the areas ofcourseware engineering, software engineering andmultimedia and web technologies as also to offerthese post graduate courses in both classroom ande-learning format to train a manpower of more than150 in each subject. The two PG programmes viz.,PG Diploma in Multimedia and Web Technology, andM.Tech IT (Courseware Engineering)were launchedin January 2005 under the project.

Development of Content Delivery

IIT, Kanpur is developing the Learning ManagementSystem i.e., an asynchronous e-Learning tools(Brihaspati) for the whole institute. For all thecourses and their students about 3000 accountswere used. A workshop was conducted for thefacilitation of the faculty and based on the feedbackreceived from the users, architectural changes arebeing incorporated. 33 institutions have showninterest or have been using this open source LMSSoftware.

Training of Trainers in e-Learning

A project has been initiated for implementation one-Learning for undertaking a training programme forthe teachers of the schools, colleges and otherinstitutions in e-Learning at the DOEACC centres ofAurangabad and Kolkata

Online Course Content on Cyber Security in

e-Learning Mode

Video recording of lectures on ‘PKI Infrastructure’and ‘Linux Security’ has been carried out.Interactions with the content authors for coursematerial preparation are under progress. It isplanned to create the online content in e-Learning

mode on the e–Sikshak platform to launch the‘Cyber Security’ course.

Enhancing Competency of IT Teachers and IndustryProfessionals at Kanwal Rekhi Institute ofInformation Technology (KReSIT) and IIT, Mumbaiare multicasting high end IT courses at PostGraduate levels. Different trails and demonstrationare being done by multimedia software provided byVenera Technologies in the real time encoding,streaming, compression and storing of encodedcontent in the hard disk. A pilot run will beconducted on low cost remote centre set-up fortransmitting the live lectures to the new or existingRemote centres.

Courseware for Quality Teaching of IT using

Interactive Multimedia in Vernacular Languages

The objective of the project is to boost the qualityof existing Class-room teaching/training in the non-metropolitan (or major) cities in IT with InteractiveMultimedia-based Courseware in VernacularLanguages and complete curricula on basics of ITfor beginners (artisans, school students, etc.,) andimparting education synchronously at multiplelocations based on the prepared InteractiveMultimedia-based Courseware on IT-relatedcourses.

C-DAC, Kolkata has developed a convivial computer-based EKALAVYA in Integrated DevelopmentEnvironment (IDE) for Courseware preparation andmaintenance. It supports Gagne’s InstructionalDesign theory as a part of its authoring support. Italso provides a client-end delivery system foreducation and pedagogic supports in theclassrooms.

The Courseware developed has been on field trial invarious districts of West Bengal and results havebeen extremely successful. BerhamporeCooperative Society is imparting training to thelocal silk weavers of the district of Murshidabad ofWest Bengal on use of this interactive multimediabased content. About 432 artisans of the Birbhumdistrict, West Bengal have been trained.

Vision Paper on e-Learning

A draft Vision Paper on e-Learning R&D projectshave been prepared and following thrust areas in e-Learning R&D Projects have been identified:

• Training of teachers in e-Learning• Development of new and inexpensive

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technologies for design and delivery of content• Content development independent of platform

and environment (Open source) and• Setting up of Quality assurance Framework in

e-Learning.

The paper has been circulated to EducationalResearch Institutes and Industry for comments /views.

Information Security Education and Awareness Programme

Information Security has been identified as one ofthe thrust areas by the Department of InformationTechnology. A project on ‘Information SecurityEducation and Awareness’ is being initiated duringthe year to undertake the following activities:

• Introduction of Information Security

Curriculum

- Training faculty of Participating Institutes - Setting up of the lab at the Resource Centres

and Participating Institutes- Development of Learning Material on

specified topics- Information Security Education Exchange

Programme – Invite experts in InformationSecurity at Resource Centre

- Organize International Conference.• Train Executives/Officials from Central & State

Government

• Awareness Programme : OrganizingConferences, Workshops, Dipstick analysis, talkson TV/Radio, publish articles etc.

Task Force on Human Resource

Development in Information Technology

To prepare a long-term strategy for significantlyincreasing the number of well trained ITprofessionals in line with the economic projectionsfor the IT enabled services sector, Department ofInformation Technology constituted a Task Force on‘Meeting Human Resource challenges for IT and IT-Enabled Services’. The Task Force was chaired byShri F.C. Kohli and had prominent members from the industry and NASSCOM. Therecommendations of the Task Force are on thefollowing strategic lines:

• Attracting resources into IT/ITeS.• Educating/developing requisite skills.• Certifying skill levels of resources.• Deploying trained/certified resources.• Monitoring and guiding efforts related to IT/ ITeS

and R&D.

Recommendations, which have been selected forimmediate implementation, area) Create an ‘IT/ITeS Awareness fund’ with industry

support.b) Provide special fiscal incentives to attract

expatriate talent for high-end work.c) Introduce changes in telecom and custom/excise

regulations to enable working from home forIT/ITeS industry.

d) Impose greater discipline associated withinformation security adherence.

e) Co-ordinate efforts to develop a common, on-linetest for ITeS (IICT).

Bioinformatics Manpower Survey

Bioinformatics has the potential to be one of thefastest growing sectors of the Indian economy,given the strong intellectual base of the country.This sector has immense job opportunities for thefuture. The Department of Information Technologyhaving realized this potential commissionedConfederation of Indian Industry (CII) to prepare areport to forecast the human resourcerequirements in Bioinformatics.

The aim of the study was to identify the existingand anticipated mismatches between supply anddemand for the Bioinformatics profession across allsectors of the economy. The report quantifies thegaps in the supply of Bioinformaticians andidentifies some important reasons for the shortfallin the skills of the individuals taking upBioinformatics-related courses. It will act as a pointof reference for both the Industry and theGovernment. The salient features of the report are :

• Introduce Modular Courses• Launching a Quality improvement programme

(QIP) in which ‘Train the Trainer” approach isfollowed.

• Set up Centres of Excellence for research andtraining purposes.

• Ensure uniformity and focus across variousinstitutions offering Bio-informatics courses.

• Standardisation of the course structure andlaying down minimum requirements forinfrastructure, competence and industrial trainingin the duration of the course.

• Introduce Bioinformatics as a separate disciplinein premier institutes like IITs/IIScs.

• Establish linkages in the form of faculty andstudent exchange programs to enhance theexposure of students to global developmentsand practices.

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• Set up shared facilities for In-silico and In-vitroresearch including software tools and databases.

• Strengthen India's IPR regime.

Information Technology and Electronics

System Maintenance Programme

In order to upgrade the technicians' skill at thegrass root level and to make it available forhardware maintenance used in the fast changing ITand Telecommunication Sectors, a new tradenamely ‘Information Technology and ElectronicsSystem Maintenance (ITESM)’ has been introducedin 100 Government run Industrial Training Institutes(ITI) located all over the country. The programmehas the following major components:

• Training to the Instructors of the 100 ITIs in thenew trade.

• Preparation and consolidation of the coursematerial for the new trade.

• Supply of IT and electronics equipment to the100 ITIs where the new trade is beingintroduced.

The intake for the programme is 20 per ITI. It isexpected that 2000 students will pass out everyyear in this new trade. The course has beenintroduced in 55 ITIs during the year 2004-05, theremaining 45 ITIs will commence this trade fromnext year.

Employment Generation Training

Scheme

The objective of the Employment GenerationTraining Scheme (EGTS) scheme is to enhanceemployment opportunity of educated youth in ITIndustry by pursuing DOEACC ‘O’ and ‘A’ levelcomputer courses. The scheme helps in promotionof IT in remote areas. A modified version of theEGTS scheme is being implemented for the last 2years (2003-05). Under modified EGTS scheme,Fee Reimbursement Assistance (FRA) is providedto students of weaker sections (SC & ST) in theNorth Eastern States including Sikkim for pursuingDOEACC accredited IT courses ‘CCC’, ‘O’ and ‘A’level(assistance varying from Rs.2,500/- toRs.20,000/- depending upon IT course) throughNGOs/ institutes having DOEACC accreditation. Itcovers DOEACC accredited IT courses, for whichsyllabus and duration of courses are strictly asprescribed by DOEACC Society. The completeinformation of the scheme is available on the DITwebsite http://www.mit.gov.in.

Distribution of Microsoft Software

Packages to Schools

In pursuance to the visit of Mr. Bill Gates,Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, USA duringSeptember 2000, the Department has beenreceiving free of cost the Microsoft AcademicSoftware packages for the 3 years for distributionto schools. Each package contain MS Office, VisualBasic and MS School Bus Series. The Departmenthad been distributing these packages to variousschools run by KVS, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti andother agencies.

The fourth consignment of these packages wasdue for distribution to various schools, but the samehas not been received from Microsoft Corporation,USA. During the year, MS Academic Softwarepackages numbering 934 have been distributed tovarious schools out of the proceeds of last yearpackages.

Special Manpower Development for

VLSI Design & Related Software

The availability of quality manpower has becomethe dominant and critical resource for developmentof knowledge based industrial sectors such as VLSIdesign, Embedded system development etc. Thetrained manpower in this area has also become

essential for the booming software sector in thecountry for both accelerating and maintaining thegrowth rate by way of moving up the value chain. Inthis context, the DITs ‘Special ManpowerDevelopment for VLSI Design and RelatedSoftware’ (SMDP) programme started in 1998 ishelping India to become a major global destinationfor VLSI design. About 125 VLSI design andElectronic Design Automation (EDA) toolcompanies are already having their design centresin India. The SMDP programme is beingimplemented at 12 Participating Institutions (PIs)with the support of 07 Resource Centres (RCs). Itincludes the activities such as setting up of VLSIDesign infrastructure at various institutions,development of Learning Material (LM) by RCs on25 selected topics, training of faculty of PIs by RCsthrough Instruction Enhancement Programme (IEP)on all the LM topics, training of laboratorytechnicians on hardware and software and teachingBE/B.Tech, ME/MTech including Ph.D programme.The IEPs on all the topics have been completed.The LMs developed under this programme arebeing reviewed and suggestions are beingincorporated. The LMs on 17 topics have beencompleted after incorporating reviewers’comments. Eight PIs, in addition to BE/BTech,ME/MTech with students taking 2-3 VLSI designsubjects, have started full ME/MTech programmein the area of Microelectronics/VLSI design. With aview to increase India’s share in the emergingglobal business, increase in availability of qualitymanpower has become necessary. A WorkingGroup set up by the DIT has evolved the next phaseof manpower development programme in this areawhich includes identification of institutions,development of curriculum for the M.Techprogramme, requirement of hardware andElectronic Design Automation (EDA) Tools and otherdetails. Consent for participation in the programmefrom the identified institutions has been obtainedand names of Participating Institutions as well asthe Resource Centres have been decided for thenext phase.

Development of Weaker Section

The Department allocates its resources on variousprojects / programmes for infrastructuredevelopment or sponsored projects for specifictechnology or manpower development.

To encourage students from the weaker sections incomputer education, the DOEACC Society of the

Department, has introduced a scholarship forstudents from weaker sections (SC/ST/OBC anddisabled) and female students forDOEACC/O/A/B/C level courses since January2003. Under this scheme, a candidate shall bereimbursed Rs. 2,000 on successful clearance offirst two papers and additional Rs. 2,000 oncompletion of balance papers in subsequentexaminations. So far, 17,118 SC/ST students havebeen registered with the DOEACC.

The Department has also formulated anEmployment Generation Training Schemes (EGTS)for the benefit of students of weaker sections(SC/ST/OBC). The emphasis of EGTS scheme is onFee Reimbursement Assistance (FRA) to directlybenefit students of weaker section (SC/ST) inNorth-Eastern States, who are not in a position tospend from their own resources for their computerliteracy needs. The EGTS scheme has direct bearingin filling up the shortage of trained personnel in thefield of IT. In addition, Centre for Development ofAdvanced Computing (C-DAC) runs IT/Computercourses, which are open to SC/STs and disabledpersons also.

Gender Issues

The IT and electronics sector is one of the largestemployers of skilled and educated persons. Thissector is also one of the largest employers ofwomen and therefore, can go a long way in womenempowerment and reducing the gender bias. ITsector provides flexibility to its employee ofoperating from home and in working time, whichenables women to carry on with jobs with familylife.

Indian IT software and services industry isestimated to provide employment to 10,45,000 ITprofessionals by March 2005. 76 per cent ofsoftware professionals in software companieswere men, whereas 24 per cent were women. Thisratio is likely to be 65:35 (male to female) by theyear 2007. The IT Enabled Services (ITES) sectorprovides more opportunities to women. This ratioof males to females in the ITES sector is reverse,i.e., 31:69. In electronic assembly lines also,females are the preferred employees.

To encourage female students in computereducation, the DOEACC Society of the Departmentof Information Technology, has introduced ascholarship for female students for

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DOEACC/O/A/B/C level courses since January2003. Under this scheme, a candidate shall bereimbursed Rs. 2,000 on successful clearance offirst two papers and additional Rs. 2,000 oncompletion of balance papers in subsequentexaminations. The female students numbering1,59,256 account for about 32 per cent of totalnumber of 4.96 lakh students registered with theDOEACC.

This sector has, thus, successfully addressed thegender issues.

Welfare of Disabled Persons

Braille literacy in Indian languages with theapplication of IT: This project was initiated underJai Vigyan National S&T Mission program fordevelopment of software and hardware productsfor Braille literacy in Indian languages for theempowerment of blind people in the country. 30blind schools in the country have already beenprovided with the IT infrastructure for Braille literacyunder this project. A tactile device for reading theinformation from the computer has beendeveloped. This device displays 20 BrailleCharacters at a time and enables a blind person toread computer files at his own pace. These devicesalong with the necessary software have beendeployed in the 30 blind schools covered under theproject.

Hand held scanner based Hindi and English textreading machine for visually impaired persons:The machine under development would consist ofa hand held light weight portable scannerinterfaced with OCR software and text to speechsoftware for Hindi and English. The system wouldenable the visually handicapped persons to readnormal printed books, etc., in Hindi and Englishlanguage.

Information Technology for internet access andrehabilitation of the visually handicapped:Screen reading software and various othersoftware in four Indian languages are proposed tobe developed to enable the blind persons to accessinternet and operate computer independently forvarious applications such as word processing inIndian languages, e-mailing and web browsing, etc.

Browsing of Conference websites throughlistening by Visually impaired persons: MediaLab Asia in collaboration with Center for

Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC),Pune and WEBEL Media Electronics Ltd. (WML)has developed an integrated system of Text-to-Speech and Text-to-Braille titled ‘Shruti Drishsti’,which enables the visually impaired conferenceattendees to browse the proceedings of theconference website through listening and readingfrom Braille. The development of the system hasbeen completed and prototype systems areproposed to be suggested for detailedevaluation/field trials.

Sanyong: A communication System for thePeople effected with Palsy: The project aims atdeveloping a visual language technology andassociated multimedia platform to provide a newand more natural communication and educationaltools an interfaces for the under-privileged segmentof society. The segments of society who willdirectly benefit from the proposed from theproposed technology include the neo-literates andpre-literates in the rural areas and people withspeech and neuro-motor disorders (cerebral palsy).In conjunction with the Text to Speech research(Shruti), the proposed technology has a very largeimpact in establishing a new and effectiveeducation and communication medium for thepeople, through its deployment. A prototypesystem is undergoing field trials at Indian Instituteof Cerebral Palsy, Kolkata.

The screen reading technology has revolutionizedthe lives of persons with vision impairment. Thistechnology provides independence in reading andwriting to them. This has an extremely positiveimpact on the educational, vocational andrecreational opportunities in their life. In India, thistechnology is being used since 1990, however,limited only to the persons who can read and writein English language. The software packages arebeing imported at high cost when compared to thecost of PC itself. Media Lab Asia has recentlyinitiated a project in collaboration with NationalAssociation for the Blind (NAB) aimed atdevelopment of the screen reading software, whichcould support English and Hindi languages.

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InfrastructureCommunity Information Centres (CICs)

The Department of Information Technology hadtaken up an initiative to set up CommunityInformation Centres (CICs) in the hilly, far-flung andrural areas of the country to bring the benefits ofICT to the people for socio-economic developmentof these areas by providing broadband connectivity.

North-Eastern States

The Department has set up 487 CommunityInformation Centres (CIC’s) at the block level in theNorth Eastern States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripuraand Sikkim. All CICs are operational except one inAssam. The CIC network availability during the year2004 has been of the order of 94 – 98 % and thepercentage of fully functional CICs of the order of90 – 96 %. During the year, 49523 persons visitedCICs, 8431 persons were trained, and total revenueof Rs 49 lakhs (including Rs 33 lakhs from training)was generated. In addition 78 Post Offices in theNorth Eastern States have been provided with acomputer and peripherals for connectivity withCICs. As per MOU, CICs would be handed over toState Governments by February 2007.

CICs are a citizen interface for IT enabled e-Government services and training. The CICsprovide e-mail, Internet access, citizen centricservices through CIC portal (www.cic.nic.in) andweb-based services such as agri-marketinformation, hospital bookings, election results andboard examination results. Training to the localcommunity on the fundamentals of usingcomputers, conducting tele-consultation sessions,dissemination of information related toemployment opportunities, data entries for Below

Poverty Line (BPL) census, and other awarenessand entertainment programmes are the regularfeatures of the CICs in the region.

For optimum utilization of CICs, the relevant localcontent has been developed and updated by theState Governments and NIC. CIC Operators weretrained by the NIC on eNRICH – a tool to developBlock Community Portals, troubleshooting VSATequipment installed at CICs, and uploading thecontent. Further, seven Workshops wereconducted at Guwahati (Assam), Agartala (Tripura),Shillong (Meghalaya), Imphal (Manipur), Aizwal(Mizoram), Dimapur (Nagaland), and Itanagar(Arunachal Pradesh) by the National Institute ofAdministrative Research (NIAR) Mussorie, aSociety of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy ofAdministration (LBSNAA) to identify the local needsof the people.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) is conducting Computer LiteracyProgramme (CLP) through the CICs in NorthEastern States. 5271 candidates have been trained,so far, through this programme of IGNOU.DOEACC, a Society under DIT is also conducting‘Course on Computer Concepts (CCC)’ throughCICs in North Eastern States. 273 CICs have beenaccredited so far for conducting the ‘CCC’programme. On-line exams of ‘CCC’ Course wereconducted using Computer Assisted PaperlessExamination System (CAPES) technology of NIC atCICs in which more than 1000 students appeared.

Jammu and Kashmir

Based on the experiences and performance of theCIC project in the North Eastern States, theDepartment of Information Technology has taken

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up another project during February 2004 to set up135 CIC’s at the block level in the State of Jammuand Kashmir (J&K). The project is beingimplemented by NIC / NICSI in two phases i.e. 60CICs in the first phase by October 2004 andremaining 75 CICs in the second phase by October2005. 60 CICs of first phase have been madeavailable to the people of J&K for providing citizen-centric services as in the North Eastern States.Community Portals of all 60 CICs have beencreated and the CIC operators have been trained toupload local content on sites.

Andaman and Nicobar and LakshadweepIslands

The Department has taken up another model forsetting up of 71 Vidya Vahini CICs in the governmentschools located in the Andaman and NicobarIslands (41 schools) and Lakshadweep Islands (30schools) with dual purpose of imparting ICT basededucation and training as well as for providingcitizen-centric services to the people of the region.During school hours, Vidya Vahini CICs would beutilized for education purpose and off school hoursthe equipment would be used by the generalpopulace to access citizen-centric services as in theNorth Eastern States. ERNET India is implementingthis project.

Uttaranchal

The Department intends to set up of 328 CICs (95CICs at the block level and 233 CICs at village level)in an entrepreneurship mode in Uttaranchal. StateGovernment would implement the project andmeet the 10% of the cost of the project. StateGovernment would ensure interfacing of CICs withtheir SWAN (State Wide Area Network) andNICNET.

Standardization,Testing & Quality

Certification (STQC)

Standardisation, Testing & Quality Certification(STQC) Directorate which functions as an attachedoffice of Department of Information Technology,provides Assurance Services in Quality andSecurity on a national level with the vision of beinga ‘key enabler in making Indian IT Industry andusers achieve compliance to International QualityStandards and compete globally’. This programmehas been in existence over three decades and hasreceived substantial support from the German

Government in the form of Indo-German TechnicalCooperation project spanning over 15 years (1980-1995). The German Government support isavailable, at present, for establishing 5 centres forTraining in Test Engineering and Quality Assurancein Electronics and IT. Apart from being a majorTesting and Calibration network in the country,STQC has initiated a number of schemes aimed atExports Promotion, Information Security andSoftware Quality Engineering.

STQC Services and Network

STQC services are executed through a countrywidenetwork comprising of Electronics Regional TestLaboratories (ERTLs), Electronics Test andDevelopment Centres (ETDCs), Centre forReliability (CFR), Indian Institute of QualityManagement (IIQM), Centres for Electronic TestEngineering (CETEs), Centres for IT Services andCertification Cells. Major STQC Services include

• Testing and Calibration• Quality and Security Certification• Training support in Quality Management and

Technology, Test Engineering, InformationSecurity and Software Quality

• Consultancy and support services for Productand Process Improvement.

Accreditation and Recognitions

The Directorate enjoys the status of a PrimeAssurance Services provider in the area ofElectronics and IT in the country and is representedin all the major national fora such as Bureau ofIndian Standards (BIS), Quality Council of India(QCI), National Accreditation Board for Test andCalibration Laboratories (NABL), National PhysicalLaboratory and major Industry Associations.

STQC laboratories hold all the major NationalAccreditation like NABL, Ministry of Defence, DOT,RDSO, DG(Mines Safety), Chief Controller ofExplosives, Director General, Shipping and manyothers.

The Certification services are Internationallyaccredited and recognized. Besides, STQC is alsorepresented in major International Standards andCertification organizations and has collaborativearrangements with major Certification agencies likeBSI UK, UL USA, TUV Germany, JQA Japan andmany others. STQC has also been offering testing,calibration, training and certification services to

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overseas countries like Nepal, Bhutan, China,Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Dubai, Germany,UK, USA and Mauritius.

Revenue Earnings and Budget

STQC has a clientele of over 10,000 customerscomprising Multinational Industries, Small andMedium Enterprises and Government Institutions.STQC facilities and services are continuously beingupgraded to meet the growing demands from theusers and customers. All the STQC’s services areextended on commercial basis with the objective ofproviding International level services at affordablecost with special focus on assisting small andmedium enterprises. After initial establishmentand consolidation phase of STQC programme, therevenue earnings from STQC services have beensteadily growing during the last five years with anannual growth rate of about 30%. Presently, STQChas already reached cash point and is able to meetthe revenue expenditure out of its earnings.However, all the earnings of STQC services go tothe Consolidated Fund of India (being an attachedoffice of DIT) and STQC expenditure both Capitaland Revenue has to be met from the DIT budget.The current Annual Budget (2004-05) for STQCprogramme is Rs.37.80 crore and the revenueearning target for the year is Rs.33 crore.

Recent Initiatives

Information Security Initiatives

Information Security Management System:STQC has been a pioneering organization inintroducing the Information Security ManagementSystem certification concept in the country and isthe first Certification Body to introduce thecertification in this area. Certification Schemelaunched by STQC in this area has beenInternationally accredited. So far, STQC has alreadycertified 25 organizations covering 45 locationsunder the scheme. STQC clients include major ITIndustries, such as Satyam, Hughes, ST MicroElectronics, HCL, Polaris, Cognizant, Iflex, Wipro,etc. and other organizations like TISCO, L&T, ICICI,Siemens. STQC has also certified a few overseasclients like Doha Bank, Qatar; Vertex, USA andPolaris, USA. STQC is also active in supportingNational/International standardization activities inthis field.

Security Product Testing and Certification:A programme for setting up a Common Criteria

Security Test/Evaluation Laboratory as well as aCertification scheme based on ISO 15408 standardhas been initiated recently. The project aims tomeet the needs of Government and industries forsecurity evaluation and certification of IT products.

Penetration Test Facilities: Penetration TestingLaboratory has been established at Kolkata toprovide commercial services with primary focus toassist IT users in critical information infrastructureand protecting their networks against disruptiveattacks.

Training in Information Security: Towardsdeveloping manpower for Security Assuranceactivities, certified training courses on variousaspects of Information Security have beendesigned and conducted. These courses are basedon the contemporary practices and Internationalstandards.

Software Testing, Evaluation andCertification

Software Testing and Evaluation activities havebeen given lot of emphasis and major projects onTesting and Evaluation from NIC, BEL, DRDOlaboratories, Language Product developers andState Government. Financial agencies and SmartCard Manufacturers are on hand. STQC haslaunched a scheme for software product, evaluationand certification. The first product certified is the‘Bhulekh Software’ developed by NIC andimplemented in four states (Delhi, West Bengal,Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu) under their Land RecordInformation System. Testing and Evaluation ofSoftware developed by DRDO laboratories for theirprojects AKSHAY and SHAKTI and SANJAY has alsobeen undertaken.

A project on Quality Evaluation and Certification ofIndian Language Technology Products has beeninitiated at Bangalore. Under this project LanguageTechnology Products like Optical CharacterRecognition (OCR), Machine Translation, Text toSpeech and Speech to Text Software and otherproducts will be tested and evaluated as per theInternational Standards. Quality developmentsupport and training would also be provided to theResource Centres and other agencies developingthese products. Necessary infrastructure hasalready been created and the Centre is equippedwith state-of-the-art facilities and Software TestTools.

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Quality in IT Service Management

With a view to improve the quality of IT servicessuch as Web service, Facility Management,Internet and Telecom Services (covering end to endservice management), STQC has introduced acertification scheme for IT service managementbased on internationally known Standard BS 15000.For this, STQC has specially trained a team of 15Engineers on the foundation course in ITIL andLead Auditors course for BS 15000 (these are theonly Indian Auditors available in the country). Thecertification scheme has been launched. STQC hasalso obtained International recognition from ITService Management Forum (itSMF) UK andhappens to be one of the 9 certification bodies inthe world and the only body in Asia offeringcertification services for IT Services Management.

Quality Assurance Framework for e-Governance

Recognizing the importance and focus for e-Governance, STQC has taken initiative to supportthis major initiative of DIT on the aspects ofStandards, Quality and Security. For this, STQCDirectorate have evolved a Quality Assuranceframework covering the aspects of Quality ofApplication Software, Security of e-GovernanceSystem and ensuring Quality of IT Service Delivery.The framework is based on the Internationalstandard like ISO 9126, BS 7799 and BS 15000.STQC has also evolved a quality model for testingand evaluation of Application Software based onthe latest International Standards and have alsovalidated this model through testing of number ofe-Governance Applications like Land RecordInformation System, Property Registration,Treasuries Information System, etc.

Highlights of Services

Testing and Calibration Services

• ERTL(East), Kolkata has established Nationalfacilities for Explosive Atmosphere CompatibilityTesting (for electrical/electronic equipment usedin potentially explosive atmosphere) and FiberOptic Instrument Calibration and have renderedservices to a large number of organizationsacross the country. The laboratory holds all theNational and International recognitions in thearea of Explosive Atmosphere CompatibilityTesting and is assisting in Exports Promotion.

Test reports of the laboratory in the area of safetytesting have been recognized by Intertek ETLServices an Internationally known Certificationbody in Sweden and Europe for the purpose of'CE' Marking as per the European Low VoltageDirectives. ERTL (East) have also establishednew facilities for calibration of ProcessParameters like Viscosity, Volume, Density andPH and have also obtained National recognitionby NABL to help the industries in the region. Thelaboratory has extended its services in the areaof safety testing, EMC testing and calibration aswell as explosive atmosphere compatibilitytesting to overseas organizations like Austria,Germany, UAE, Bangla Desh, Oman, etc.

• ERTL (West), Mumbai assisted a number ofindustries in getting 'CE' Marking as perEuropean Machine Directive for exports toEuropean countries. The laboratory has alsohelped in Quality Evaluation of Office Automationproducts for Government of Maharashtra. Aunique facility for calibration of SP ResistanceThermometer by fix point technology has beenestablished at ERTL which is the only facilityoutside National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in thecountry.

• ERTL (North), Delhi has established state-of-the-art EMI/EMC testing facilities, which are fully

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operational. The Laboratory has also expandedits Power and Energy testing base to overseascustomers in Australia, Singapore, Canada andPhilippines. Experts from Turkey and Switzerlandhave visited the Laboratory in connection withPower and Energy testing of their products.ERTL (North) has also been assisting the IndianExporters in obtaining CE Marking ofelectrical/electronic products and is a leadingLaboratory in STQC having all the InternationalAccreditation like IECQ, CBTL, NABL, etc. TheLaboratory was also chosen by the NABL forAPLAC Peer Review in the area of calibrationwhich has been successfully completed.

• ERTL (South), Thiruvananthapuram has moved toits newly constructed building at Akkulam andwould be operating from the new site shortly.The Laboratory has specialized in testing ofmedical electronics equipment/instruments andhas obtained International Accreditation for thisin terms of Certified Laboratory under IECEE-CBscheme operated by International Electro-technical commission.

• ETDC, Bangalore has recognition in conductingProficiency Test (PT) programme in the field ofEMC for the first time in India. ETDC has alsosecured best score in PT programme conductedby FM Australia and has also co-ordinatedProficiency Test Programme for NABL involving22 laboratories all over India. The Laboratory hasalso been certified as an Independent TestLaboratory in the Solar PhotoVoltaic area underthe International IECQ Scheme.

• STQC Laboratory at Hyderabad has beeninvolved in Environmental and Vibration testing ofMissiles Sub-systems and have also providedcalibration services to Defence, Space, Atomicenergy, Power, Pharmaceutical, Railways andTelecom sectors.

• ETDC, Chennai has established state of the artfacilities for calibration of Dead Weight Testersand EMI/EMC Testing. This Centre has alsoassisted Indian Railways in analysing the causefor derailment of suburban trains.

• ETDC, Pune have upgraded its testing andcalibration facilities to provide effective servicesto Automobiles industries. The Laboratory hasbeen providing services to Defenceestablishments like DGQA, High ExplosiveFactory, Armament Research and Development

Establishment, Vehicle factory, etc., and has alsobeen accredited by VSSC, Thiruvanthapuram fortesting power modules and amplifier used inPSLV/GSLV projects.

• Centre for Reliability (CFR) at Chennai has beenproviding Reliability and Failure Analysis servicesto a number of organizations. These includeIndian Railways, ISPAT Industries-Mumbai,Crompton Greaves, TVS Electronics, Larsen &Toubro, DRDO and many others. The Centre hasalso engineered and further upgraded softwaretools such as software test coverage andsoftware code compliance developed by IIT,Kanpur so as to market them commercially as ‘offthe shelf’ products. These tools were releasedduring ELITEX exhibition in April 2004.

• ETDC at Goa is now fully functional from its newprestigious building at Bambolin at a site leasedout by Goa University. The Laboratory isrendering calibration services to the localindustry and have provided their facility toNuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (KaigaPower Plant).

Training Services

• STQC Directorate have conducted over 300training courses covering over 700 organizationsand 6000 participants in the area of QualityManagement, Quality Technology, Metrology,Test Engineering and Process Automation,Information Security and Software QualityEngineering;

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• Indian Institute of Quality Management (IIQM) atJaipur has been acting as an Apex Institute inSTQC to provide trainings in the area of QualityManagement, Quality Technology, LaboratoryManagement and Environmental Management.The Institute has been recently accredited by theInternational Registrar of Certified Auditors(IRCA), UK for conducting their Registered LeadAuditor courses for ISO 9000 and InformationSecurity Management System. This is asignificant achievement as there are very fewIndian organizations having this accreditation.STQC/IIQM happens to be the only Indianorganization offering IRCA Accredited LeadAuditor course in Information Security.

• Centres for Electronics Test Engineering (CETEs)established under the Indo-German Technicalcooperation Project continued to conduct skillbased training in Metrology, ElectronicsManufacturing, Industrial Automation, TestEngineering and Quality Assurance. CETEs havealso been conducting Quality Assurance trainingcourses sponsored by quality Council of India.CETE at Bangalore are conducting trainingcourses for small industries sponsored by SIDBIto promote Quality Awareness. The Centre hasalso introduced long term courses (three monthsand one year duration) for weaker section incollaboration with NSFDC. CETEs have alsolaunched new training programmes like FibreOptics, Networking, Medical Electronics, SixSigma and others. CETE at Kolkata is alsoworking as a resource Centre for Post DiplomaCourse on Bio Medical Instrumentation byUniversity of Kolkata and is also negotiating withBE College, Shibpur for launching a PostGraduate Diploma Course on Process Controland Industrial Automation.

• Centre for Reliability, Chennai and IIQM, Jaipurhave also conducted Certified ReliabilityProfessional Training courses which have gainedpopularity;

• ETDC at Goa has been providing faculty supportto Goa University for their MSc (Electronics)Curriculum and Student Projects in Electronics.The Centre has also established itself as animportant STQC centre for Linux ApplicationTraining;

• In the area of Information Technology, STQC ITcentres have been successfully conductingCertified Training Courses like CertifiedInformation Security Professional, CertifiedInternal Auditor and Lead Auditor for InformationSecurity Management system, CertifiedNetwork Security Assessment, CertifiedSoftware Quality Professional and Test Managerand the like. These courses have gained verymuch popularity and importance amongst ITIndustries and user organizations.

Certification Services

• Internationally Accredited Certification servicesfor ISO 9000 (Quality Management System), ISO14000 (Environmental Management System) andProduct Safety have been provided to about 800customers. STQC is also offering InternationalCertification services for safety of electricalproducts under IECEE-CB and for electronicscomponents under IECQ system. Both thesesystems are being run by the InternationalElectro Technical Commission (IEC) based atGeneva, Switzerland. Some of the majorGovernment clients/PSU served by STQC forcertification services include Bharat SancharNigam Limited (BSNL), ISRO, DRDOLaboratories, Telecom Training Centre, CentralBank, Military Engineering Services, and InterimTest Range for Missiles under DRDO, C-DAC,DOEACC apart from a number of privateorganized units and SMEs including Philips andTata Group of companies.

• Certification Services have also been extendedto some of clients in Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan andUSA. Considering the importance of IT in financeand banking, the scope of Quality and SecurityCertification has been extended to this sectorand STQC have also sought InternationalAccreditation for providing Certification Servicesin this area.

STQC Overseas ServicesSTQC has also been providing overseas services onpilot basis in the area of Product Safety, Inspectionand Certification, Testing and Calibration andTraining. The services provided during the currentyear are detailed below:

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Country Type of Services renderedUSA ISO 9000 Certification, Product

Safety, Security Certification

Germany Explosive Safety/Inspection

UK Explosive Safety

France Explosive Safety/Agency

Inspection

South Africa Intrinsic Safety

UAE Safety, EMC, CMM and

e-Security Training

Qatar e-Security Certification

Saudi Arabia SASO Certification

Taiwan Safety Certification, CMM and

e-Security Training

Hong Kong CB Laboratory Assessment

Nepal Calibration

Bhutan Calibration

Bahrain Information Security

Management System

Certification

Sri Lanka IECQ Certification, Calibration

Bangla Desh Calibration, Laboratory

Assessment for NABL

Oman Calibration

Mauritius Training in QMS and

Information Security

Norway Safety Certification

Services in North East Region

Two Electronic Test and Development Centres(ETDCs) one at Guwahati and the other at Agartalaare functioning under the STQC programme. ETDCGuwahati is being developed as the main hub ofSTQC to serve the North Eastern State. Followingservices are being provided by the centre for thebenefit of industries and organizations in NE State:

• State-of-the-art calibration facilities; • Facilities for clean energy testing has been

recently established at the centre;• Entrepreneurs development training courses for

the benefit of young entrepreneurs in PChardware maintenance and moving displaymanufacturing and others;

• DOEACC 'O' and 'A' level courses for computereducation in the NE region. These courses arealso being conducted for SC/ST and other

backward community at a very nominal charge;• Major customers of ETDC, Guwahati include

ONGC Ltd., IOCL, NRL, BRPL, Oil India Limited,NEEPCO Limited, PGCIL, Airport Authority ofIndia, HPCL, Hindustan Lever Maruti ServiceStations, Coca Cola and other MSI, SSI units inthe NE region.

National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

NIXI, a Section 25 Company has been establishedto facilitate handling of domestic Internet Traffic.This will enable more efficient use of InternationalBandwidth and save Foreign Exchange. NIXI hasbeen hosted in the premises of SoftwareTechnology Parks of India (STPI) at its presentlocations at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai andKolkata. For more details, please refer societychapter.

Broadband Economy Initiative

Studies across the globe have shown a positivecorrelation between broadband access and highgross domestic product (GDP) growth rates. Areport on ‘India’s Broadband Economy: Vision 2010’has been brought out jointly by the Department ofInformation Technology (DIT), Department ofTelecommunications (DOT) and Confederation ofIndian Industry (CII). This study has providedimportant inputs to the Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (TRAI) report on ‘Broadband India:Recommendations on accelerating growth ofInternet and broadband penetration’.

The DIT and DOT have identified the fiscal,administrative and technical issues involved in thepromotion of the broadband economy and havemade specific recommendations for achieving theobjective of 10 million broadband subscribers bythe year 2010. In this regard, DIT has supported therecommendations of TRAI on:

Fiscal concessions such as• Waiver of sales, excise, entertainment and

income tax; • 100% depreciation in first year on Personal

Computers (PC’s) and broadband ConsumerPremises Equipment’s (CPE’s);

Regulatory issues such as:• Delicensing of wireless spectrum for providing

wireless broadband access to the ruralbroadband service providers;

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• Facilitation of granting Right-Of-Way (ROW) to alllicensed Basic Service Operators and InternetService Providers; and

Infrastructure development:• Boosting growth of National Internet Exchange

of India (NIXI) with rationalized tariff structure.

Providing broadband connectivity to all, at the mostreasonable prices involves affordable accessdevices / terminal equipment, low cost connectivityto wide band communication networks, and lowcost multimedia content for different userrequirements. The following initiatives have beenundertaken to promote growth of Internet andBroadband in the country:

• National Broadband Policy 2004 has beenannounced by the Minister of Communications &Information Technology with a view to provideimpetus to broadband and Internet penetration inthe country. The new broadband policy aims totarget three million broadband subscribers andsix million Internet subscribers with a timeframeof December 2005. By the end of the year 2010,the policy aims to target 20 million broadbandsubscribers and 40 million Internet subscribers.

• The 2.4 GHz – 2.48 Ghz band has been furtherliberalized by Wireless Planning and Coordination

(WPC) for indoor use, thus enabling widercoverage of wireless LAN, etc.

• National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) hasbeen set up. 25 Internet Service Provides (ISP’s)are connected to the NIXI nodes. NIXI has alsoframed the routing policy and tariff structure.

• Efforts have been initiated for creation offramework for increasing .IN domain nameregistration, preparing roadmap for InternetProtocol (IPv6) migration, promoting Voice overInternet Protocols (VoIP), and next generationmobile wireless technology standards

• The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has beenentrusted the task of preparing detailedGeographical Information System (GIS) maps.

• Further issues that need to be addressed for rollout of Broadband in India have been identifiedsuch as Internet issues for opening up of VPN(Virtual Private Network) to the private ISPs;promote Wi-MAX option for leveraging ruralbroadband rollout; spectrum release for urbanand rural wireless roll out; mandate standardsand QoS (Quality of Service) for cable networksarchitecture to make them Broadband capable;and suitable amendments to the Copyright Act.

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SocietiesCentre for Development of Advanced

Computing (C-DAC)

The Centre for Development of AdvancedComputing (C-DAC) is a multi-locational, multi-activity organization spread out at 10 locations with14 laboratories and has a work force of about 1800employees. The year 2004-05 was the first fullfinancial year of merged C-DAC after the merger ofi) Electronics Research and Development Centre ofIndia (ER&DCI), ii) National Centre for SoftwareTechnology (NCST) and iii) Mohali Centre of theCentre for Electronics Design & Technology of India(CEDTI) into C-DAC on December 16, 2002. Thenew, strengthened C-DAC focused on the followingcore technology areas during the year:

• High Performance Computing (HPC) and GridComputing

• Multilingual Computing, Applied ArtificialIntelligence and Speech Processing

• Power Electronics, Agri-Electronics, Real TimeSystems, Embedded Systems and VLSI Design

• Cyber Security

• Broadband, Wireless and Internet Technologies

• Geomatics

• Health Informatics

• Software (including OSS/Linux), Multimedia,Graphics and Database Technologies

• e-Governance and ICT for Addressing DigitalDivide

• Education and Training.

The key achievements during the year in each ofthese areas are given below.

High Performance Computing (HPC) andGrid Computing

After having built and commissioned the PARAMPadma system during the last financial year, therewere focused efforts this year to increase its userbase. As a result, the use of PARAM Padma hassteadily increased in terms of utilization time and istoday servicing a large number of researchersworking in frontier areas and mission critical usergroups in a variety of disciplines. There are over 40technical affiliate users from various disciplines andpremier institutions. C-DAC is also encouragingnew users to taste the benefit of such a system, inturn, leading to demand for more clusters of varyingcompute power in their own organization or as ashareable facility. A new PARAM Padma systemwill be installed at National Centre for MediumRange Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) by March2005.

Other activities during the year in the area of HPCincluded commencement of PARAMNet III design(10 Gbps interconnect for clusters), ReconfigurableComputing Solutions (RCS) prototype testing forRaman Research Laboratory (RRL), upgrades insystem software, and significant amount of work inHPC applications areas such as Bioinformatics,Weather Forecasting, Computational FluidDynamics, Structural Mechanics and EvolutionaryComputing. A Bioinformatics Resources andApplications Facility (BRAF) was set up andinaugurated by the Secretary, DIT, MCIT at C-DAC’sTerascale Supercomputing Facility (CTSF),Bangalore on June 14, 2004.

In the area of Grid Computing, a prototype Grid wasset up by interconnecting the National PARAMSupercomputing Facility (NPSF), Pune and CTSF,Bangalore through a 100 MBPS link and a

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bioinformatics portal was demonstrated over thisGrid environment. The prototype environment wasextended further by setting up a 100 MBPS linkbetween CTSF at Bangalore and a Linux cluster inHyderabad. A project on Prototype Grid ComputingInitiative (GARUDA) has been approved forimplementation over the next 12 months. It will bea phase of Proof of Concept (POC) for efforts inarchitecture, technology and standards relating toGrid Computing and will also provide the underlyingnetwork fabric at 100 MBPS at 17 locations toenable remote access to PARAM Padma andPARAM 10000 and those at other institutions. Thework has commenced on grid computing and rapidprogress has been made in all components of theproject including research, technologydevelopment, standards, computational resourcesand grid enablement of applications. C-DAC hasentered into agreements for significant

collaborations in grid computing with University ofHyderabad, Anna University, National ChemicalLaboratory (NCL) and National Centre forAtmoshperic Research (NCAR), USA.

Multilingual Computing, Applied ArtificialIntelligence and Speech Processing

C-DAC has a proud legacy in this area with lots ofsuccessful products such as, the LanguageInterface Card under DOS/Unix (GIST), the IndianLanguage Word Processor (LEAP), the IndianLanguage Interface to Linux (INDIX), the SanskritLanguage Parser (Desika), Indian Language Parser(Vyakarta), the Indian Language Learning Package(LILA), the Machine-Assisted Translation System(MANTRA), the Hindi (Chitrankan), Marathi(Chitraksharika) and Malayalam (Nayana) OCR, theNatural Language Processing (NLP) based

Information Extraction/Retrieval System(Anveshak), the Indian Language Interface toMobiles, the Indian Language Open Office Suite(BharateeyaOO), etc.

The key achievements during the year in this areaare :

A Computer Aided Text-to-Speech and Text-to-Braille System (Shruti-Drishti) for Visually Impairedwas launched with support from the Department ofInformation Technology and Media Lab Asia. Itintegrates C-DAC’s Extractor and Vachantarapplications with the webel’s Text-to-Braille,emboss-printer, Braille script viewer and tactilereader to enable visually impaired persons to listento the proceedings of conference websites.

• The development, embedding and integration ofIndian language solution for mobile handsetswas done for Sony Ericsson and Samsung.

• The EPSON, Japan project, which involved giving10 Indian language support for their dot matrixprinter range was successfully completed. Theprinter supports ISCII, PC-ISCII and EA-ISCIIinterface. It has total 40 built-in fonts, 4 fonts perscript.

• C-DAC’s LILA (Learn Indian Language throughArtificial Intelligence) PPP (Praveen, Prabodh,Pragya) SLA (South Indian Languages) packagewas launched on September 14, 2004. Thepackage enables learning of Hindi through themeans of South Indian Languages.

• The Malayalam e-mail package (SANDESAM),developed by the Regional Language ResourceCentre of C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram wasreleased on November 20, 2003.

• The first copy of C-DAC’s Malayalam OpticalCharacter Recognition software (NAYNA) wassold to Malayalam Manorama, the leadingregional newspaper in Kerala.

• Intellectual Property Right (IPR) was acquired byC-DAC, Mohali for its SAMPADAK, a PunjabiWord Processor with Spell Checker under theMS-Windows platform.

• The development of highly compact and efficientOpen Type Nastaliq font and its deployment onDeutche Welle, Germany news portal wascompleted.

C-DAC’s Terascale Supercomputing Facility

• The design and development of a MachineAssisted Translation System for translating JAEquestion papers of Indian Institute of Bankersand Finance from English to Hindi wascompleted.

• C-DAC and Sun Microsystems released Solaris9.0 with Indic support. The Indian languagesupport was provided to Sun Microsystems by C-DAC in this development.

• Linux localization (Indix2) and Office Suitelocalization (BharateeyaOO) was done for Indianlanguages.

• A TDIL portal has been maintained and updatedwith information on language technologydevelopments and standards. The portal e-publishes the periodicals, calendar of events,links to related sites in bi-lingual (English andHindi) mode. The portal also extends regularservices like Hindi E-Mail Seva, MachineTranslation and Samadhan Seva.

Power Electronics, Agri-Electronics, Real-Time Systems, Embedded Systems and VLSIDesign

Power Electronics as a vital part of industrial controlis a major thrust area for C-DAC. The advancementin Real time high speed Digital Controllers andPower Semiconductor devices have enabled thistechnology to play a key role in the areas of powerquality improvement, electric traction, pollutionfree vehicles, automotive electronics, non-conventional energy sources, remote controlledvehicles, energy efficient power supplies anddrives, etc.

C-DAC has taken keen interest in updating itsknowledge base in frontier technologies andinnovations to meet the technological revolutionand new challenges in the area. In close

coordination with premier academic institutes inthe country, C-DAC’s development activities aretargeted towards realizing the mission to makeIndia a global player in power electronicstechnology.

The products/solutions delivered during the year inthis area include the following:

• The Underwater Range (UWR) Complex set-upby C-DAC was dedicated to the nation on June 9,2004. The Complex, consisting of two magneticand a shallow water noise range, is an importanthealth-monitoring facility for naval ships toenhance their combat-worthiness. This is the firstover-run range in this part of Asia. The datahandling system and electronics in the offshorepart were developed and installed by C-DAC.

• The Model Tea Factory (MTF) at Toklai, Jorhat,Assam has been constructed under ‘IntegratedAutomation of Tea Processing’ project funded byDepartment of Information Technology,Department of Commerce and Council ofScientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) andimplemented by C-DAC, Kolkata, CEERI, Pilaniand TRA. MTF was inaugurated by the Hon’bleChief Minister of Assam Shri Tarun Gogoi onSeptember 25, 2004.

• Development of a Remote Inspection Device(RID) was completed. This development wassponsored by Babha Atomic Research Centre(BARC). They have appreciated the effort andhave now contacted C-DAC for the developmentof a larger version of RID to handle ‘glassified’waste.

• A Trouble Call Registration and ManagementSystem was commissioned at the Kerala StateElectricity Board (KSEB) control room, in Kochi.With this system in place, consumers canregister their fault reports and can get theirregistration docket numbers via SMS. Thesystem also uses GSM technology fordispatching the fault jobs to the mobilemaintenance staff deployed at various places.

• The Compact PCI Industrial Computer developedby C-DAC’s Real Time Systems Group (RTSG) atBangalore was launched on July 2, 2004. Thedevelopment was an initiative of the IndustrialApplications Division of the Department ofTechnology.

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Shruti drishti

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• A power supply module for Mirage Aircrafts wasdeveloped. It has passed all types of approvaltests, and is now ready for flight trials in thefighter aircraft.

Cyber Security

In the area of Cyber Security, C-DAC developedCyber Forensics Tool Suite consisting of thefollowing:

• TrueBack. It is a DOS application with eventbased DOS Windowing System. It performs aself-integrity check and minimum systemconfiguration check.

• CyberCheck. It is a software for analyzing thedisk image taken using TrueBack software. It is aStandard Windows application.

• E-MailTracer. It is a standard Windowsapplication, which provides a facility forautomatic extraction of Microsoft OutlookMailbox from the hard disk and a facility to list allthe DBX files in the system.

These tools have been distributed among lawenforcing agencies of the country to enable themto follow-up the implementation of the IT Act 2000,specially with respect to cyber crimes. They havebeen successfully used in the investigation andanalysis of the sensational pornographic blackmail(threatening e-mail) of Kidangor EngineeringCollege.

C-DAC-Kolkata developed Steganalysis software,which was successfully integrated with the PacketSniffer software developed by IIT, Kanpur.

During the year, C-DAC also started some newactivities in this area including Lawful Interceptionof VoIP Traffic and On-line Course ContentDevelopment for Cyber Security to offer in e-Learning mode.

Broadband, Wireless and InternetTechnologies

The C-DAC has developed and commercialized theentire protocol suite including base-band andterminal equipment complying to EU (EuropeanUnion) standard for professional Radio (TETRA).During the year, this technology was exported toUnited Kingdom (UK) and China. It is also beingused by Bharat Electronics Limited.

C-DAC also designed and developed a broadbandSoftware Defined Radio (SDR) equipment forcustomer premises to provide rural connectivity.The system is based on OFDM (OrthogonalFrequency Division Multiplexing) architecture andconsists of base band, RF and IF modules. Thesystem has been designed based on ConexantChipset and uses wireless LAN 802.11garchitecture. Device drivers and interfaces havealso been developed to integrate various devices.The system will be manufactured by ITI Limited andwill be utilized initially by IFFCO for distribution offertilizers through their retail outlets.

Another initiative taken by C-DAC in this area wasthe integration of the Connax Conditional AccessSystem (CAS) on its Set Top Box to meet therequirements of various MSOs like Zee TV. Thetechnology partner Real Time Systems, New Delhiwas facilitated to upgrade the design of the Set TopBox with enhanced Conditional Access System tobe delivered to Zee TV. Another technology partnerITI Limited commenced the prototypemanufacturing of Direct to Home (DTH) Set Top Boxto provide access to free-to-air bouquet of channelsbeing launched by Doordarshan and Zee TV.

Geomatics

In the field of Geomatics, C-DAC offers technologysolutions in areas like Thematic Mapping, SpatialDatabase Development, Terrain Visualization,Spatial Decision Support System and Web GIS. Thesolutions are oriented to real world problemspertaining to natural and man-made environmentsassimilating multiple disciplines, namely, GIS,remote sensing, photogrammetry, cartography,GPS and geodesy. From identifying landslide proneareas to biodiversity characterization, C-DAC standsat the forefront of excellence in offering geo-intelligence solutions for effective planning,management and governance.

Two important systems developed during the yearin this area include GeLMS and MARS. GeLMS is aGIS enabled Land Monitoring System for the DelhiDevelopment Authority. It deals with land recordsautomation, acquisition and utilization of land andvectorization and digitization of maps, all fullyintegrated through the GIS stream. MARS is a MapArchival and Retrieval System for GIS applications.Unlike other similar tools available in the market,this is an effort to develop an open source

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technology based system, which is aplatform/database, independent tool. The toolprovides all the GIS capabilities like zooming,planning, searching, information browsing, etc.This also includes storage of spatial map data in anydatabase along with the textual information. Themap engine works both with Intranet and Internetenvironments without the need of conventionalInternet Map Server.

The Geomatics group of C-DAC also did a projectfor identification of hilly zones within PuneMunicipal Corporation (PMC) limits using high-resolution satellite imagery. The project gains insignificance from the urban encroachment in the‘tekdi’ (hilly region) areas of Pune city, which hasdrawn sharp criticism from environment consciouscitizens and has also led to a major movement byNGO’s to save the hills.

Health Informatics

In the area of Health Informatics, C-DAC hascreated software suites for Hospital InformationSystem (HIS) and Telemedicine. The HIS system(Sushrut) has been commissioned at the SanjayGandhi Post Graduate Institute (SGPGI), Lucknowand the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital (GTB), Delhi.The current version of the same is beingimplemented at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute ofMedical Sciences, Sevagram, Maharashtra.

C-DAC’s telemedicine system (Mercury), afterhaving been deployed and tested at the All IndianInstitute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Delhi, SGPGI,Lucknow and PGI, Chandigarh, is being extended tocover additional three medical colleges at Shimla,Cuttak and Rohtak. It is also being deployed in twostates in North-East and in the State of Kerala.

ONCONET (CancerNet Phase-II) is a telemedicineproject implemented by C-DAC at the RegionalCancer Centre (RCC), Thiruvananthapuram. It

provides telemedicine services in cancer detection,treatment, pain relief and patient follow-up at theRCC and its nodal centres. Based on the successof the CancerNet, an enhanced project has beentaken up by C-DAC with participation by the RCC,ISRO and the DIT. The main objective of the projectis to establish ‘Knowledge enabled CancerNet’ –Online cancer detection and patient follow-upmanagement system – enhancing its quality andimpact using high bandwidth connectivity withmatching hardware and software, upgrading andintegrating backend systems and processes. Theproject was inaugurated at the MCCS (MalabarCancer Care Society) Early Cancer DetectionCentre in Kozhikode on October 28, 2004.

In another Kerala based initiative, the healthdirectorates and hospitals are being progressivelycomputerized. The first phase involves thecomputerization of the five health directorates: theDirectorate of Health Services, the Directorate ofMedical Education, the Directorate of IndianSystems of Medicine, the Directorate of AyurvedaMedical Education, the Directorate ofHomoeopathy and the computerization of theMedical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram.

Other challenging task addressed by C-DAC is themonitoring and reporting of health and nutritionstatus of children, women and girls at the 24,000anganwadi centres in 163 blocks.

Software (including OSS/Linux),Multimedia, Graphics and DatabaseTechnologies

Building on existing expertise on Linux and otheropen source systems and projects such as Indixand Vidyakash, activities have been initiated todevelop technical and human resources in this area.A portal for open source software is beingdeveloped. Specific proposals are being taken upto fund this effort from the DIT and other sourcesincluding industry. In this direction, C-DAC,Mumbai, IBM, India and IIT, Mumbai signed anagreement on October 6, 2004 to set up a ‘OpenSource Software Resource Centre (OSSRC)’ atMumbai.

In October 2004, C-DAC launched its ‘Janabharati’project focusing efforts on developing a softwaresuite based on Linux for Indian languages. Theproject aims at inviting, building and supportingcommunity initiatives to produce and disseminate

TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio)

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free and open source software systems, breakinglanguage barriers and bridging the digital divide.The project will cover the development oftechnology into diverse areas through info-kiosks,cyber-cares, and so on. It draws on C-DAC’s INDIXproject to make GNU/Linux operating systems‘intelligent’, when it comes to Indian scripts.

The Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMS),Chennai and C-DAC’s National MultimediaResearch Centre, Pune have jointly produced CD-ROMs on the Life and Work of Indian mathematicalgenius, Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920). This isthe first multimedia initiative for preservingscientific heritage of Ramanujan. The CD set waslaunched in New Delhi on December 22, 2004.

e-Governance and ICT forAddressing Digital Divide

C-DAC has taken far-reaching initiative in thedomain of e-Governance to deploy e-solutions,which promise improved transparency, speedyinformation dissemination, higher administrativeefficiency and improved public services. As in otherareas, C-DAC thrust in e-Governance is acombination of participation with government andindustry efforts in development of architecture,standards, technology, processes and thedevelopment and deployment of practices, projectsand skill sets using state-of-the-art technology.

C-DAC’s e-Governance solutions in thePradhanmantri Grama Sadak Yojana (PMGSY),Public Works Department (Maharashtra andTripura), Stamp and Registration (Maharashtra andKarnataka), Municipal Corporation (Karnataka) toname a few, are touching the lives of thousands ofIndians across the country.

During the year, C-DAC has been working withstate governments in Karnataka, Kerala, Delhi,West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh,Orissa, Tripura, Goa, Pondicherry as also theElection Commission, the Indian Patent Office, theRailways, the Ministry for Rural Development andother agencies. On June 14, 2004, C-DAC receivedthe CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Award for the ‘BestTechnical Company in e-Governance’.

Towards the use of ICT for digital divide, C-DAC’sBangalore centre in the Electronics City campus,together with IIT, Mumbai have partnered with theDigital Gateway Foundation IDGF), a United Statesbased non-profit institution, in which theGovernment of India is a member, to develop

meaningful technologies in ICT for addressingdigital divide. As part of this initiative, C-DAC hasdeveloped interesting tools including SMART-Vyapar (Small and Medium Applications for RuralTechnicalization) and CMS4C (ContentManagement System for the Community). SMART-Vyapar is an online meeting place for villagers totrade and post information about goods, productsand services. It provides a mechanism to initiatebuying and selling transactions. To demonstrate thesystem and spread the culture of e-business, C-DAC and DGF have set up physical conceptstores.

CMS4C serves as a clearing-house for weatherinformation, agricultural market information,matrimonials, employment exchange and bullionmarket movements. It has been deployed at theDHAN (Development for Human Action)Community Centre at Melur, in Tamil Nadu, whichhas also seen the first deployment of Vyapar.

Another development has been the Vartalaap virtualclassroom, in local languages. To providecomputing capability for such rural initiatives, C-DAC has created an Indian language version of theOpenOffice.org suite known as BharateeyaOO.o aswell as a text-to-speech tool, Matrubhasha, for localIndian languages.

Education and Training

During the year, C-DAC continued to offer itsvarious certificate, diploma and post-graduatediploma courses in Software technologies,Enterprise System Management, Geomatics, VLSIDesign, Digital Multimedia, and the Programme forAdvancing Computer Education (PACE).

New education programmes namely, M.Tech (IT)and M.Tech (VLSI Design) were launched during theyear by C-DAC, Noida. C-DAC, Mohali conductedspecially designed training programmes forinternational participants covering AdvancedCourse on Multimedia and Web DesigningTechnology, Repair and Maintenance of TelecomEquipment, Computers and Peripherals, RepairService and Maintenance of Bio-MedicalEquipment. More than 50 students from more than20 countries participated in these trainingprogrammes. The activity was sponsored by theMinistry of External Affairs, Government of Indiaunder the Indian Technical and EconomicCooperation (ITEC) and Special CommonwealthAfrican Assistance Plan (SCAAP).

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C-DAC also continued several specialized andcustomized national level corporatized trainingprogrammes for the Indian Airforce, Central Soiland Material Research Station, Ministry ofAgriculture, etc.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) mainobjective has been the promotion of softwareexports from the country. The services rendered bySTPI for the software exporting community havebeen statutory services, data communicationsservices and incubation facilities. STPI has alsoplayed a developmental role in the promotion ofsoftware exports with a special focus on SMEs andstart up units.

Software Technology Park (STP) is a 100% exportoriented scheme for the development and export ofcomputer software using communication links orphysical media and including export of professionalservices.The STP scheme has been widelysuccessful and the exports made by STP units havegrown manifold over the years. Today, STPIregistered units accounts for about 90% of the totalsoftware exports from the country.

The datacom connectivity is a critical requirementof software exporters and STPI has been providingthis service since inception. This has resulted in agradual shift from onsite software development tooffshore software development. To overcome thelast mile problem and to maximize uptime, STPI hasmade provision for radio connectivity for the lastmile. Over the years, STPI’s major revenue sourcehas been its datacom services. During the year,

STPI has commissioned its new centres atDurgapur and Kharagpur in West Bengal, Imphal inManipur and Gangtok in Sikkim. With the additionalof these four new centres, STPI now has 44centres across the country.

The STPI has been providing incubation facilities forthe software exporters, specifically to the SMEsand start up units. The incubation facilities includeready to use built up space with plug and playfacilities and other backup resources such aspower, DG set, internet enabled workstations, etc.,which have been very useful for the start-up unitsand SMEs. Short gestation periods and minimalinvestments in terms of capital have encouragedthe software exporters to start exportingoperations. STPI has also been providing valueadded services such as web hosting, data centre,video- conferencing, ISDN connectivity, etc.

High Speed Data Communication Facility

One of the important contributions of STPI to thesoftware-exporting sector is that of providing High-Speed Data Communication (HSDC) services. STPIhas designed and developed state-of-the-art HSDCNetwork called SoftNET, which is available tosoftware exporters at internationally competitiveprices. STPI provides both fibre and satellite basedHigh Speed Data Communication links and has setup its own International Satellite Gateways at all itslocations.

Local access to International Gateways at STPIcentres is provided through Point-to-Point andPoint-to-Multipoint microwave radios for the localloop which has overcome the last mile problem andenabled STPI to maintain an up time of nearly99.9%. The terrestrial cables (fibre/copper) are alsoused wherever feasible. These communicationfacilities are the backbone of the success in thedevelopment of offshore software activities.

STPI is having working relations with majorinternational telecommunication operators such asAT&T, MCI, Sprint, Intelsat, New Skies Satellite,British Telecom, etc. STPI provides worldwideconnectivity for its software export units and isradiating more than 400 MBPS. STPI has alsoacquired International and Domestic fiberbandwidth of capacity STM1 in order to meet thecustomers demand for the services on fiber. Withthis, STPI is able to provide Internet Private LeasedCircuit (IPLC) and IP services on fiber.

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STPI is offering IPLCs on full circuit basiscompletely on fiber between Indian customer andUSA customer on attractive terms. As one stopsolution to the customer, it facilitates single point ofcontact and ease of coordination. Implementationor deployment of the service is faster whencompared to conventional bilateral services. Thebandwidth is provided in multiples of nx64Kbps ornxE1.

To provide better Quality of Service (QoS) to thecustomers in terms of latency and reliability, STPI istied up with Tier – 1 Service provider in USA forInternet backbone. The customer who are availingSTPI’s Internet Service will be connected to Tier – 1Service provider’s backbone in USA through STPI’sInternet Gateway. The bandwidth is provided inmultiples of nx64Kbps or nxE1.

STP Units

More than 5500 units registered under STPI, out ofwhich 4809 units are operational and 4088 units areexporting.

Exports

Member units of STPI have exported software ofover Rs.51,458 crore during the year 2003-04. Thesoftware exports are likely to be around Rs 66,000crore during the year 2004-05.

Project Management and ConsultancyKhajane NET

KhajaneNET is a Project undertaken by theKarnataka Government to interconnect all theTreasuries in the State. The Treasuries areinterconnected using VSAT’s to a centralized HUBlocated at Khanija Bhavan building in Bangalore. TheVSAT based satellite network is designed toprovide data services. The VSAT HUB network isbuilt with sufficient equipment redundancy.

The work of Department of Treasuries is spreadacross all the Districts and Taluks of the Statenumbering about 215. All these Treasuries functionas ‘Pay and Accounts Office’ for all Government ofKarnataka transactions. The MIS reports andreports of expenditure on salaries, pensions,deposits and revenue receipts will be madeavailable to the Government as well as the audit.STPI, Bangalore has been nominated as theprimary nodal agency for the Consulting and Projectmanagement for KhajaneNET project. TheKhajaneNET owned by the Department of Treasury,Ministry of Finance, Government of Karnataka, isalready operational and being managed by STPI ona 24 x 7 basis.

STPI also takes care of robust fault reportsmanagement system, preventive maintenance ofhub and remotes, USATS, traffic analysis usingnetwork management system, application relatedproblems, management of servers, backup facility,inventory control of Hub and remote equipment,etc.

Khajane NET is the first Consultancy projectsuccessfully executed by STPI, Bangalore and hasobtained the award of contract for operations andmaintenance of Hub and remote locations for aperiod of 5 years.

Commercial Tax Department, Karnataka

Value Added Tax (VAT) is a multi point levy of tax onthe value addition in various stages. VATadministration, therefore, requires keeping a trackof the transaction. The volume of data is huge andneeds a large and efficient information systeminfrastructure. Government of Karnataka with thesupport of STPI has successfully implemented theproject.

VAT in Karnataka is administered in a networkedenvironment spread across the State in about 92locations. The interface with taxpayer will bethrough TPS (Tax Payer Service), which willcomprise of LVO’s (Local Vat Office) in large placesand VSO’s (Vat Sub Offices) in smaller places. TheseOffices are completely computerized with a serverin each LVO and will be on a LAN in client – serverarchitecture. VSO’s will not be having any localserver and will be depending on the respective LVOserver. Each of these LAN’s in LVO and VSO areinterconnected through VSATs to the central serverin which state data resides and generate MISreports for tax administration at the State level.

STPI has conducted a feasibility study and a designfor sharing the existing Hub facility of KhajaneNET– the Treasury Network has been suggested. Theproject is successfully commissioned withbackhaul connectivity from KhajaneNET to Centralserver CTD Office. Remotes are already operationaland being managed by STPI on a 24 x 7 basis.

The project has been successfully completed andhas obtained the award of contract for operationsand maintenance of Hub and remote locations for aperiod of 5 years along with Backhaul connectivity.

Communication System Monitoring Equipment

(CSME) for Europe Star Satellite

The Europe Star teleport facility is located in theSTPI Network Operation Centre at Bangalore formonitoring the downlink signals covering the ISNRegion (India / Nepal / SriLanka) through the CSMEfacility (Communication System and MonitoringEquipment) and connected to the CSMN facilityTolohouse, France through Frame-relay circuit. TheCSME set-up is be capable of monitoring themultiple high-powered beams (Ku-Band) focusedon (ISN) region and generate the report on thestatus of carriers for Ku-Band Europe Startransponders. The STPI has made the set-upoperational on a 24 x 7 basis, maintains CSMEfacility at Bangalore, Upgrades CSME facility in linewith Europe Star team, and provide, support forCalibration Testing.

Carrier Monitoring System (CMS) for

PanAmSat Satellites

STPI, Bangalore centre is supporting the CMSfacility (Carrier Monitoring System) for thePanAmSat PAS-7 Satellite and also for the recently

launched PAS-10 Satellite covering the IndianOcean Region (IOR). The CMS System located atSTPI-Bangalore, India will be capable of monitoringthe multiple high-powered beams (Ku-Band)focused on India and generate the report on thestatus of carriers for Ku-Band PAS transponders.The set-up is connected to PAS NOC centre atAtlanta via Leased Line Internet Circuit provided bySTPI, Bangalore with a contract for 5 years.

Nortel Networks HUB

STPI, Bangalore has been housing the Nortelequipments since 1996, for providing the hubmanagement, 24/7 supports for the developmentof Nortel projects, as Bangalore being identified asone of the major development centre for Nortel inthe Asia Pacific region. STPI has facilitated Nortelfor establishing the connectivity’s to their partnerlocations in Bangalore and other cities, whichincludes Infosys Technologies, Wipro and Saskencommunications.

NICNET

This project envisages to set up an integratednetwork operation centre and Internet Data Centreat the National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi.NIC has entrusted the project iNOC – IntegratedNetwork operation centre to STPI, Bangalore forimplementation. As part of the project, STPI-Bangalore has designed and implementedInfrastructure for iNOC and Integrated Data Centre.The Network Operations Centre will be a multi layersystem, which provides a capability to manage,monitor and control the NIC Network spread acrossthe country through the NOC.

STPI-Bangalore made a detailed study of the NICNetwork and assessed the needs of NIC fornetwork management and proposed to build anintegrated and centralized IT Management systemfor NIC that helps NIC in terms of managing therestoration time, Optimize IT resources, servicelevels and business continuity. STPI-Bangalore hasprovided value added consultancy in a projectmanagement, design of infrastructure anddeployment, consultancy, procurement anddeployment of the network management system,display system for monitoring networkcomponents.

The iNOC and the IDC centres have beensuccessfully handed over to the client. The soul of

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the project is the Network Management System.The implementation of the Network ManagementSystem is under progress. NIC’s effort to replicatethe State of the Art Infrastructure in various otherState centres is in progress and STPI hassuccessfully delivered the NIC HyderabadInfrastructure.

Integrated Management Information

System (iMIS) for DDA

STPI has been providing consultancy on networkarchitecture and design, software development,etc., on turnkey project for the past many years toreputed clients. STPI is offering consultancyservices to Delhi Development Authority (DDA) onSoftware Project Management for development of‘Integrated Management Information System(IMIS)’ for the housing development sector. STPIhas already floated RFP to find out a suitableconsultant who can assist STPI in planning therequirement in terms of Software/Hardware.

International ProjectsBusiness Parks of Mauritius Ltd (BPML) –

International Project

Business Parks of Mauritius Ltd (BPML) is acompany set up by the Government of Mauritius todevelop and manage new age Business Parks inthe country. The first task of BPML has been thedevelopment of the Ebene Cyber City.

The Government of India made available a specialline of credit of US$ 100 million for the creation ofcyber city project. The Software Technology Parksof India as a nodal agency on behalf of Governmentof India has successfully implemented the EbeneCyber City project on turnkey basis. STPI’s roleincludes project management and consultation,identification of network and communicationinfrastructure, identification of office infrastructure,integration of network operations centre anddisplay system for monitoring networkcomponents.

STPI’s initiative on Bio IT Park

The bio-informatics industry in India is in a nascentstage and the right initiatives need to be taken bythe Government to provide the necessary impetusfor the growth of this sector. Incubation facility forStart-up units by the Government would bebeneficial in the field of Bioinformatics. To facilitatethe export of Bio-informatics and attract FDI, it isproposed to set up ‘ BIO-IT Park’.

The proposed ‘ Park’ shall be a joint effort of CentralGovernment, State Government and PrivateBodies. This would a Public-Private partnershipproject. A stakeholder consultation process wasundertaken by STPI and to understand the needs ofthe industry. This included Workshops at sixlocations in the country that had a concentration ofBiotech/Bioinformatics companies. The Workshopswere held at Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow,Pune, Kolkata, Delhi (Noida). Taking into accountthe issues/points raised by the participants of theWorkshop, a ‘Feasibility Report’ has been preparedfor setting up the proposed Bio-IT Park. The reporthas received ‘In-Principle’ approval from thePlanning Commission. The Park would also haveState Government as a key stakeholder. The privatepromoter would be selected through a openbidding process.

National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

To enhance the spread of Internet in India, the costof Internet connectivity needs to come down whilethe bandwidth and the quality of service (QoS)needs to be improved. One of the effectivemechanisms to accomplish this is theestablishment of Internet Exchange Points (IXP) inthe country. An IXP interconnects Internet ServiceProviders (ISPs) in a region or a country, allowingthem to exchange domestic Internet traffic locally,thereby avoid routing the Internet traffic acrossmultiple international hops to reach theirdestination within the country.

The Department of Information Technology, inassociation with the Internet Service ProvidersAssociation of India (ISPAI) has promoted theNational Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) as a Not-for-Profit Company under Section 25 of the IndianCompanies Act, 1956 with the objective offacilitating improved Internet services in thecountry. In its operation, NIXI aims to ensure thatthe Internet traffic which originates within India andalso has destination in India, remains within thecountry, resulting in improved traffic latency,reduced cost and better security.

As part of the implementation plan of NIXI, fourInternet Exchange Nodes have been set up and areoperational at Noida (Delhi), Mumbai, Chennai andKolkata in the premises of the Software TechnologyParks of India. Forty Internet Service Providers(ISPs) have joined these nodes and number of ISPs

is increasing with the demonstrated experience onimproved traffic routing and financial benefitthrough saving on usage cost of bandwidth.

NIXI has implemented a dynamic traffic routing andtariff policy for its members with effect from July 1,2004. The policy is regularly reviewed by the Boardof NIXI to ensure that the requirements of themembers are addressed while ensuring that theobjectives set for NIXI are met.

In order to address the problem of excessive costof connectivity for smaller ISPs (Class B and C)operating in secondary cities, the Government isconsidering a proposal to set up, in partnership withthe State Governments, and with the ISPs as stakeholders, a second tier of NIXI hubs in a few selectedprovincial capitals.

Society for Applied Microwave Electronics

Engineering and Research (SAMEER)

Society for Applied Microwave ElectronicsEngineering and Research (SAMEER) is engaged inthe research and development in the areas ofMicrowave Engineering, Electromagnetic andMillimeterwave Technology. It has three centres atMumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Mumbai Centre specializes in the area of linearaccelerator technology for cancer therapy, opto-electronics, microwave and radio frequencysystems and sub-systems and components. Itundertakes and executes sponsored projects forvarious government agencies, public sectorundertakings and industries.

Chennai Centre is a national facility for advancedresearch and development in electromagneticinterference and compatibility (EMI/EMC). It offerscomprehensive test, consultancy, training,engineering and research services to nationalagencies and electronic industries in India.

The Centre at Kolkata has been establishedrecently and is involved in the development of RF,microwave and millimeter-wave components andsub-systems for different users in the country.

SAMEER continues to be in a position of strengthin handling design, development and delivery ofhardware to meet stringent specifications of useragencies in its expert areas of high power RFamplifiers, RF communication systems,

atmospheric radar instrumentation, linearaccelerators, electromagnetic interference /compatibility (EMI/EMC), thermal engineering ofelectronic hardware, RF / microwave / millimeterwave antennas, photonic devices, microwavecomponents/modules and industrial RF/microwaveapplication products.

SAMEER has further progressed in pursuingexcellence in application oriented research anddevelopment in the areas of RF and microwavesystems. It has also succeeded in handling both thechallenging sponsored project assignments, in-house technology development and core R&Dprojects. Several products such as Cell phonejammers, EMI suppression telephone line filters,patch antenna and sleeve monopole antennas havebeen developed.

The remote operation and monitoring of Light-house operation on the coast of Gujarat for DirectorGeneral of Light Houses and Light Ships (DGLL)has been a major project SAMEER has undertakensuccessfully. The operation of lighthouses isautomated with the help of microcontroller basedSupervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)system. It has commissioned the installation at 40Light House stations. This gives remote accessthrough telephone and wireless connection forHeadquarters in any location to monitor the healthparameters and the status of Light Houses.SAMEER is committed to maintain these systemsafter installation and commissioning in theseremote locations.

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) as a partof its modernization programme has adopted newindigenously developed Radiosondes for collectingupper air meteorological data. SAMEER hasdeveloped and installed at several locations in thecountry, data acquisition and auto computationsystem for collection of meteorological datacapable of acquiring and processing radiosondedata in real time. Auto computation software for thespecific application of computing the Met dataobtained through radiosonde and radio theodolitescapable of online plots of pressure, temperatureand humidity, generation of T-Phi gram, etc., as perworld meteorological organization standards. Thenew autocomputation system has beensuccessfully commissioned at several locations inthe country.

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The packaging of optoelectronic components is animportant step in order to use the components in asystem. The packaging requires precise alignmentof optical fiber with respect to device, electronicinterconnections and hermetic sealing. A uniquefacility is being created in the country to meet thepackaging related needs. A 12-axis autoalignmentsystem for precise alignment of photoniccomponents with respect to fibers has beeninstalled and commissioned. This system can beused to fiber pigtail a variety of devices like planarwaveguides, array waveguide gratings, opticalmodulators, switches and photo diodes.

SAMEER has been recognized as a qualifieddevelopmental centre for Space electronicshardware. The C-band transponders for INSATseries satellites are being developed at SAMEERChennai premises. An in-house High ReliabilityElectronic Fabrication (HIREF) facility fordevelopment, test and evaluation of transpondersfor onboard spacecraft applications has beenestablished. Class 1.0 lakh clean room facility,space qualified wiremen and inspection team havebeen created.

The EMI/EMC programme in SAMEER hasblossomed into a world-class service. The regularup-dation of expert skills, test and measurementfacilities and the excellent design consultancyknowledge base have brought SAMEER to centrestage in the field of EMI/EMC in this part of AsiaPacific region. United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) funding in the 1990s and theCE Marking project funded by the DIT currentlybeing implemented at the three Centres ofSAMEER has expanded the reach of SAMEER inoffering EMC design service to all parts of thecountry. SAMEER has taken major steps at itsChennai Centre in bench marking of EMC facilitiesthrough certification and accreditation. It has ISO9001, NABL, FCC listing, CSA quality certificationand TUV certification for the EMC test facility. Thesalient features of the augmentation include 10 mferrite lined shielded anechoic chamber at Chennaiand 3 m ferrite lined shielded chambers at Mumbaiand Kolkata which have been installed andcommissioned.

SAMEER has been a pioneer in bringingmicrowaves to industrial use. One of thetechniques used worldwide is treatment of

infectious bio-medical waste in hospitals beforedisposal. The bio-medical waste creates a majorhealth hazard owing to the presence of multitude ofpathogens infectious in nature. With microwavetechnology it is entirely achievable to effect bulkheating of the wastes, thereby achieving totaldisinfection at very low temperatures compared toconventional incineration system which usesthermal-oxidation which requires hightemperatures as heat propagates to the inner coreof the waste. SAMEER has developed indigenouslydisinfection system of various capacities which haslow import content and adheres to normsformulated by Ministry of Environment.

SAMEER has emerged as the premier institutionworking in the area of linear accelerators. Theprimary application of linear accelerators is in thetreatment of cancer (radio therapy). This is an effortof two decades expertise in ultra high vacuumtechnology, high power microwaves, acceleratortechnology, high voltage engineering and precisionmechanical engineering. SAMEER has beenidentified as the main institution by the ApexCommittee for the developmental programme ofCancer institutions in India for low energy linearaccelerators for medical applications. Under jaivigyan programme of government of India, the firstindigenous 6 MV machine is being installed atMGIMS hospital at Wardha.

Projects Completed in 2004-05• Automation of lighthouses: Automation of all the

39 lighthouses has been completed in theGujarat coast and is operational.

• The C-Band high power transmitter has beeninstalled and commissioned at SHAR.

• The distance measuring instrument aftersuccessful demonstration delivered to useragency.

• Hand held data terminals for pilot balloon dataprocessing has been demonstrated anddelivered to user.

• Packaging of Photonic Devices: The 12 axis autoalignment pig tailing system has been installedand commissioned. Workshop to disseminateinformation on facility, design and fabricationcapability was held in August 2004.

• Two microwave disinfection units of lower

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capacity have been designed, fabricated testedand delivered.

• Class 1 lakh clean room facility has beencommissioned at Chennai for fabrication of C-band TTC transponders.

• Development and installation of New Auto-computation System for Radio-TheodoliteSystem at 28 sites have been completed.

• Binary Phase shifters and high powertransmitting antenna development for NMRFTirupati. Design, testing and delivery completed.

• Wide-band Antenna and RF Front end fortransreceiver module. Demonstration oftransreceive module with wide band antenna tothe required size (40mm) and the extraction ofbeat frequency signal corresponding to 9m+/-4m height completed.

• Design and development of planar microstriparray antenna at S- band. Design, fabrication anddelivery of four engineering models of antennas.

• Design and development of Co-Secant SquaredReflector Antenna at X- Band and delivery of 2engineering models of antennas completed.

• Medical linear accelerator machine under JaiVigyan programme ; commissioning of firstmachine. MGIMS hospital has been identified forinstallation. The final testing has been completedand machine will be installed at Wardha.

• Spare linac tube for VSSC has been tested anddelivered.

• As a part of EMC test facility for CE Markingproject, at Chennai 10m chamber has beeninstalled and shielding attenuation

measurements completed. At Mumbai EMC testfacilities have been installed. The three meteranechoic chamber installation is in progress. AtKolkata three meter chamber has been installedand commissioned.

• Design and development and supply ofintegrated line and radio modem to privateindustries: Fabrication of 4 numbers of IRLM and1 number of configuration unit have beencompleted and delivered.

• Microwave dryer for user agency has beeninstalled and commissioned at Durgapur.

• RF Dryer for user agency has been installed andcommissioned at Mysore.

Projects continued and initiated• 15 MeV linac system: all subsystems have been

fabricated and tested.

• Distance measuring instrument is being fieldevaluated and demonstrated.

• Development of airborne communicationantenna for LCA - prototype is being fabricated.

• 10 MeV RF- LINAC , EMC design consultancy:testing of subsystems and grounding.

• Joint Programme with L&T for development ofC&S Band transmitter preliminary design reviewand procurement of components completed.

• C-Band Transponder fabrication for ISAC ISRO:Fabrication of two numbers of C-bandTransponders at SAMEER, Module level testingand carrying out environmental test andfabrication of C-band transponders underprogress.

• Development and supply of PM telemetryreceiver: fabrication of prototype completed.

• Establishment of Vacuum furnace pilot plant forITO coating on glass: design and test facilityestablishment is under progress at Perungudi,Campus.

• System and Software for collection of EMsignature from IT equipments: Firming oftechnique and procurement of project hardwarehas been completed.

• Development and evaluation of V/UHF antennafor HAL: Evaluation and Demonstration ofprototype, fabrication of first batch completed.

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• Development of Comparators for S/X Mono-pulse Tracking Feed and Evaluation for ISAC.Procurement and assembly of passivecomponents for the mono-pulse tracking feed isunder progress.

• SAMEER’s interaction with Industry in the fieldof EMI/EMC has resulted in 250 test and designconsultancy assignments. For World wideacceptance of Test and Evaluation resultsconducted at SAMEER laboratory, the EMCfacilities have been certified by ISO 9001, listedby Federal Communication Commission (FCC),USA and certified by CSA International Canadafor witness testing and Accredited by NationalAccreditation Board for Testing and CalibrationLaboratories (NABL). SAMEER is alsoestablishing EMC facilities for obtaining CEmarking status for European norms.

• SAMEER has signed an agreement with WorldSpace Corporation, Washington, USA for 3rdparty evaluation of their Consumer RadioReceiver (CRR). This receiver, which directlyreceives satellite broadcast digital signal, is beingmanufactured by several companies in Japan,China, India and Thailand.

• High power CW amplifier: 2 KW amplifier hasbeen designed fabricated and tested. The 40 KWamplifier design completed and criticalfabrication under progress.

• Thermal modeling of spacecraft sub-systems forISAC: Thermal analysis of INSAT-4A for transferorbit, on-orbit and launch phase. Thermal analysisof spacecraft panels and sub-systems for INSAT-4B, etc.

DOEACC

Realising the wide gap in the availability of qualitycomputer professionals to meet India's ambitiousleadership plans in software exports, the societyhas revolutionized computer knowledgedissemination, by offering its meticulously preparedcurriculum through the non-formal sector.

DOEACC's holistic quality policy entails thecreation and regular upgradation of curriculum bythe country's leading academia and ITprofessionals; offering these courses throughscreened institutes; centralised examinations atseveral centres across India to ensure seriousnessboth at the institute's and individual's level.

The mandate of the Sciety is to carry out HumanResource Development and related activities in thearea of Information, Electronics andCommunication Technology (IECT) and in its pursuitto meet its objective, the Society is implementing ajoint scheme of Department of InformationTechnology and all India Council for TechnicalEducation (AICTE). DOEACC Society is spread outat 10 locations with its Head Quarter at New Delhi.The Society has a work force of about 592employees. The objective of DOEACC Scheme is toharness the infrastructure and the facilities availablein the computer training institutions in the non-formal sector to generate qualified manpower.

To achieve the objective of the Society, variousEducation and Training Programmes are designedby the Society to build and mobilize skilled humanresource in the area of IECT to serve the needs ofthe Industry by utilizing the resources and facilitiesavailable in Public and Private Sector traininginstitutes in the non-formal sector. The programmedesign takes into account the following aspects:

• The Education and Training offered by the Societyshould be highly job and skill oriented, differentfrom other educational programmes of similarnature in scope and quality.

• Highly flexible programme with fast updation ofCourse Curricula, which are customer driven, sothat the students graduating from the Society aregainfully employed by the Industry.

• Industry participation in the formulation andrunning of programmes, particularly for impartinghands-on-experience.

• Quality service provided based on total qualitymanagement system in line with ISO 9001-2000Certification by the DOEACC Society and all itsCentres.

• Regular feedback from customers.

• Programmes to be available in the DistanceLearning mode.

• Programmes to be available in the Web-basedmode to provide complimentary inputs to theclassroom mode for delivery of instruction.

Core Areas of Education and Training • Information Technology and Tools

• E-learning

• Electronic Design and Technology

• Electronics, Instrumentation and Automation

• VLSI Design and Embedded Systems

• Maintenance Engineering

• Electronic Manufacturing Technology (CAD /CAM)

• Agri-Electronics

• Opto-Electronics

• Industrial Design

• IT for Masses

• Consumer Electronics.

Courses offered by the Society

The DOEACC offers education and trainingprogramme for students, working professionals,training of trainers and new courses in emergingareas especially in those areas where the PrivateSector or the Formal University Sector have yet tolaunch the programme.

Long Term Courses

i) DOEACC O, A, B and C Level coursesii) M.Tech Coursesiii)Post Matric Diploma Coursesiv)MCA Programme.

Short Term Courses/ Training Programmes

i) Awareness Programmesii) Corporate Training Programmesiii)Certificate Courses.

DOEACC Scheme on Computer Courses

The DOEACC Scheme plays a pivotal role ingenerating competent manpower by utilizing theresources available in the non-formal sector foreducation in the area of Information Technology.Harnessing the resources available at privatecomputer training institutions to meet theprojected manpower requirements assumesgreater significance since this sector is betterequipped to keep pace with the fast rate ofobsolescence in IT industry.

Under the Scheme, following four levels of coursesare offered:Level Equivalency‘O’ Level Equivalent to Foundation level course‘A’ Level Equivalent to Advanced Diploma in

Computer Applications‘B’ Level Equivalent to MCA level course‘C’ Level Equivalent to M. Tech. level course

‘O’ / ‘A’ and ‘B’ level of courses are recognized bythe Government of India for the purpose ofemployment in Central/State Government, PSUs,etc. The activities of the Society, under the Scheme,inter-alia include:-

• Registration of students at various level ofcourses;

• Accreditation of courses being conducted atinstitutions in the non-formal sector of ITeducation;

• Conduct of examinations, twice a year, andawarding certificates/diplomas;

• Regular updation of syllabi;

• Design of course curriculum.

The DOEACC Scheme on computer courses hasbeen financially self-sustainable since its inception.The expenditure is being met out of its ownrevenue generation.

Registration

During the year 2004-05, 26192 candidates wereregistered for various level of courses bringing atotal number of students registered for variouslevels of courses as on 31st October, 2004 to4,89,190.

Accreditation

Under DOEACC Scheme, the courses run byinstitutions in the non-formal sector are grantedaccreditation for the DOEACC computer courses at‘O’, ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ levels, based on well definednorms and criteria regarding space, faculty,hardware, software, library and otherparameters/facilities. These norms and criteriaare as laid down in the Guidelines for Accreditationfor relevant level. Accreditation is given to aspecific course conducted by an institution at aspecific location and not to the institute as a wholeor to other courses, which are conducted by theinstitute during the year 2004-2005 (October, 2004)83 courses have been accreditated.

Examinations

Examinations at all the four Levels, viz.,‘O’/’A’/’B’/’C’ are conducted on all India basis twice

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a year in the months of January and July.Candidates can either appear through an instituteconducting DOEACC courses or can appeardirectly, subject to relevant experience in the areaof Information Technology as prescribed for theparticular Level.

DOEACC Centres

The DOEACC Centres located at Aurangabad,Aizawl, Calicut, Chandigarh, Gorakhpur, Imphal,Jammu/Srinagar, Kolkata, Tezpur are conductinglong-term courses, which are not offered by theUniversities/Institutes in the Formal Sector. Thesecourses are at the post-graduate and diploma levelsin Electronics Design and Technology, ProcessControl and Industrial Automation, ComputerSystems and Maintenance and Repair andMaintenance of Consumer Electronics Products.The Centres, in the North-Eastern Region, offerDiploma Programmes approved by respective StateGovernments in Electronics Engineering andComputer Science and Engineering. The Centresare also conducting short and long-termprogrammes to meet the needs of local industry. Inaddition, the erstwhile CEDTI had been running aFranchising Scheme (CFS) under which short andlong term courses in the field of IECT are offered. Ithas been decided to phase out the CFS in a phasedmanner. The last examination under CFS would beheld in March 2006. In the meanwhile, CFS-ATCsare being encouraged to apply for DOEACCAccreditation.

DOEACC Centres located at Kolkata andChandigarh are engaged in activities relating to ITEducation and training, data processing, softwaredevelopment and consultancy projects.

Bioinformatics Courses

The courses on Bioinformatics were launched bythe Society. Bioinformatics is the convergence ofInformation Technology and Life Sciences.Bioinformatics is a fast growing discipline and hasemerged as a cutting edge technology of theknowledge revolution. India’s achievements andstrategic advantage in Information Technology andBiotechnology have positioned the country to play acrucial role in the post genomic era. Quality HumanResource Development in this area is therefore achallenging task.

The prospective employers of these courses maybe in Drugs, Pharmaceuticals, Biofertilizers,Agriculture and Energy Sector, EnvironmentalEngineering industries, Research and Educationalorganizations. Bio-informatics courses at ‘O’ and ‘A’Level have been introduced by DOEACC CentreChandigarh, being the nodal agency for theimplementation of Bio-informatics course includingconduct of examination at ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level. Thesyllabus for courses under ‘B’ and ‘C’ levels isunder preparation. 407 students were registeredfor ‘O’ level course in Bio-informatics by December2004. The first batch of ‘O’ / ‘A’ Level qualifiers fromthe various DOEACC Centres would be qualifyingby December 2004. Efforts are being made forplacement of DOEACC ‘A’ Level (Bio-informatics)qualifiers.

Training of Trainers in Bioinformatics

To ensure quality training of participants in Bio-related modules, training of Trainers was organisedat DOEACC Centres in Kolkata, Chandigarh andAurangabad. The training of trainers for DOEACCCentres were organized by DOEACC Centre,Chandigarh in association with IMTECH,Chandigarh and Department of Bio-technology,Punjab University. Another prrogramme fortraining of trainers was conducted by DOEACCCentre, Kolkata in association with Indian Instituteof Chemical Biology, Kolkata and Bose Institute,Kolkata. A third programme of training of Trainershas also been conducted by DOEACC Centre,Aurangabad in association with Swami RamanandTirth Marathwada University (SRTM), Nanded. 40participants got trained in the various programmes.

Training Programme for Nurses inSoft Skills and IT Skills

The Training Programme for Nurses in Soft Skillsand IT Skills has been introduced with DONERassistance, in the State of Mizoram through

DOEACC Centre Aizawl. The syllabus for trainingthe nurses has been developed by DOEACC CentreAizawl with feedbacks from leading health careinstitutes. The course aims to tackle 6 domains thathave influence on patient’s satisfaction with nursingcare, the socio-demographic (cultural) backgroundof the patient, patients expectation regardingnursing care, the physical involvement,communication and information, participation andinvolvement, interpersonal relation between nurseand patient. The duration of the course is 2 months.

Regional Institute of E-learning andInformation Technology at Kohima

With a view to facilitate the Naga youths to haveeasy access to education and training in the fieldof Computer Science and Information Technologythereby generation of quality industry readymanpower, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India,announced setting up of RIELIT in Kohima onOctober 29, 2003; with an outlay of Rs.20 crore forwhich land to be provided free of cost by the StateGovernment of Nagaland. DOEACC Society wasgiven the responsibility to establish the institute.

The Regional Institute of e-Learning andInformation Technology (RIELIT) will have the primeobjective to create quality manpower in the area ofComputer Science and Information Technology andrelated disciplines in the non-formal sector, makingavailable industry ready professionals and topromote and facilitate education in e-learningmode. The Institute will offer training programme toimprove employment opportunities and facilitateavailability of quality IT manpower, which will leadto growth of IT industry in the region.

The institute is being planned to have State-of-the-art infrastructure for providing e-learning solutionsincluding content development and deliveryhaving a facility to train about 500 students perannum by 2006–07 and a placement cell to takecare requirements of entire North East region.

The institute will offer courses in ComputerApplication - CCC / O / A / B / C levels, Bio –informatics, IT Enabled Services (ITES) / BusinessProcess Outsourcing (BPO ), Hardware Courses,and other short term training programmes forindustry ready professionals.

Training of Trainers in E-Learning

A project on ‘Training of Teachers in e-learning’ of

Department of Information Technology has beenundertaken by DOEACC Centre at Aurangabad andKolkata in the first Phase. The project aims topropagate the knowledge on e-learning and itsapplications among teachers to integrate e-learningmethodology and approach with teaching andlearning for improvement in educationalmethodologies (Pedagogies).

Project Implementation

The Project will be implemented by the DOEACCCentre Aurangabad. The courses / trainingprograms will be conducted for the benefit ofteachers from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa,Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The total durationof the project is of 18 months. 120 teachers wouldbe trained in six (6) batches. The venue of training isDOEACC Centre, Aurangabad.

The Project will also be implemented by theDOEACC Centre Kolkata. The courses / trainingprograms will be conducted for the benefit ofteachers from West Bengal, Orrisa, Sikkim, Biharand Jharkhand. The total duration of the project is of18 months. 120 teachers would be trained in six (6)batches. The venue of training is DOEACC Centre,Kolkata.

Course Curricula

The course curricula consists of two broad topicsviz., imparting of knowledge on computeroperations and using of e- learning tools,LMS/LCMS and introduction to content creation.Therefore the course is divided into two categoriesof teachers i.e. teachers with and without computerbackground.

Identification of Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries of this project are teachers fromthe following categories of formal education.

1. Category I – Primary and High SchoolTeachers

2. Category II – HSC / Junior CollegeTeachers

3. Category III – Arts, Science Colleges andUniversity Teachers

4. Category IV– TTTI, ITI and PolytechnicTeachers

5. Category V – Engineering College Teachers.

The first batch of Training the trainers in e-learningis likely to start by December 2004 at the twoCentres.

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Content Development for e-Learning

Crystal e-learning, an initiative of GTZ, Germany hasenvisaged to undertake a comprehensiveprogramme for building e-learning institutions.Crystal offers a packaged service for enablingteachers to produce blended courseware costefficiently, manage an instructional project andprovide for change management when setting upan e-Learning institution.

A core element of the Crystal Programme conceptis the linking of capacity development andinstitution development. Training of staff isembedded in the support of institutionaldevelopment that leads to the establishment of ane-learning Competence Centre within the Indo-German Network of Industrial Services (IGNIS).

The first joint project of the Indo-German Networkof Industrial Service will be the establishment of ane-Learning Competence Centre in collaborationwith the BMZ-sector project Crystal. Together withCrystal, IGNIS will conduct a comprehensive 10months blended learning training programme forthe required capacity development and institutiondevelopment, starting in July 2004.

DOEACC Centres at Aurangabad, Calicut, Imphaland Aizawl are likely to participate in the 10 monthsblended learning training programme for Capacitybuilding in e-learning.

DOEACC Courses on ITES / BPO

The Department for Development of North-EasternRegion (DONER) in association with DOEACCSociety, Department of Information Technology hasoffered ITES (IT Enabled Services) / BPO (BusinessProcess Outsourcing) agents training courses tothe students of the North-East to tap the Englishlanguage proficiency of the youths in the region.DONER in association with the DOEACC Society,has launched training of manpower in theInformation Technology Enabled Services (CallCentre). It is felt that potential of NE youths couldbe very meaningfully utilized in the filed of ITES(Information Technology Enabled Services), wherefluency in speaking and understanding Englishlanguage is essential. DOEACC is conducting ITES(Call Centre) agents training at DOEACC Centreslocated in the NE Region viz., Guwahati, Imphal,Tezpur and Aizawl. It is also being offered atGangtok and Agartala in association withDepartment of Information Technology,

Government of Sikkim and Tripura, respectively.DOEACC has also launched the course in theStates of Nagaland and Meghalaya in the North-East Region. The course is being offered atRegional Institute of e-Learning and InformationTechnology (RIELIT), Kohima, an institute underDOEACC; and Meghalaya Administrative TrainingInstitute (MATI), Shillong from October 2004.

The course will build upon the talent and skills ofthe student to bring out the qualities, which arerequired for the successful career in the ITESindustry. The unique course curriculum has beendesigned in consultation with leading players in theindustry. It covers training on various Call Centreskills such as Communications Skills, BehavioralSkills, Personality Development, CustomerRelationship Management Skills, Basic andComputer Operational Skills. On completion of thiscourse, the student will be able to effectively usecomputers and applications like word processors,spreadsheets, databases, etc., and will master theeffective use of the Internet as a tool. While gainingthis technical knowledge, the student will also betrained to develop a well-groomed personality,develop communication skills, and understandbusiness communication and corporate culture.The student will further undergo behavioral trainingin areas such as time management, stressmanagement, selling skills, etc. The ITES course isa full time course.

M. Tech in Embedded System at DOEACCCentre, Calicut

M. Tech in embedded systems at DOEACC Centre,Calicut is being launched during the year.

Upgradation of Centres in North East Region

The Centres in the North-East Region are beingupgraded in terms of basic infrastructuredevelopment, additional office space and StudentsHostel during the year 2004-05 with financialassistance from DIT.

Centre for Materials for Electronics

Technology (C-MET)

Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) has been set up for the development ofviable technologies in the area of materials mainlyfor electronics. C-MET is operating through itslaboratories situated at Pune, Hyderabad andThrissur. The objectives of C-MET are:

• To establish technology up to pilot scale for arange of electronic materials transfer the same toindustry for commercialization.

• To establish relevant characterization facilities.

• To undertake applied research activities in thearea of its operation.

• To establish national data base on Electronicsmaterials.

C-MET’s mission is to develop knowledge base inelectronics materials and their processingtechnology for the Indian industry and become asource of critical electronic materials, know-howand technical services for the industry and othersectors of economy.

During the Tenth Plan period, C-MET will continueto work in the selected two areas, i.e., thrust area(Ultrahigh Pure Materials and Electronic Packaging)and emerging area (Optoelectronic materials andSensors and Actuators ), where it will developunique expertise in India. In many of theseprogramme, nanotechnology will be used todevelop materials, devices or components.

C-MET Achievements during 2004-05 Ultra-high Purity Materials

• De-oxidation of cadmium to <1ppm wasachieved by distillation /melting in presence ofhydrogen.

• 7 N Te and 6 N TeO2 have been supplied to SPLand BARC respectively for their use.

• Tantalum powders of CV value in the range of12000 to 14000 mFV/g and DC leakage in therange of 0.005 to 0.0005 mA/mFV have beenachieved.

• 1 Kg Tantalum pentoxide prepared by calcinationof hydroxide .

• Initial trials for magnesium reduction of niobiumoxide have been carried out to obtain Nb metal.

Electronic Packaging

• RMA solder paste at 1Kg scale was prepared andgiven to B T Solders for evaluation at user end.

• Achieved 50 mm line and space resolution usingprepared aqueous developable photoimageablesilver paste.

• Different paste compositions of photoimageablesilver paste with respect to variation in glass

content (0-10%) were prepared keeping constantinorganic to organic ratio (72:28) and polymersolid content (85.0%). The samples wereanalyzed for microstructure and sheetresistance.

• A class 10,000 clean room to house theprototype LTCC line is under fabrication.

• Electroless plating of Cu on bare Aluminasubstrates optimized.

• Nanosized RuO2.xH2O powder was synthesizedfor supercapacitors for VSSC.

• Achieved >95% densification in glass +cordierite compositions at 8500C for LTCC work.

• Excellent dimensional stability and dielectricproperties are obtained for high K substrates byvarying the filler concentration in the range 65 to68 wt%.

Optoelectronics Materials

• Prepared 70 mm glass blanks of OG-515. The UVcut off in the range 510-516 nm has beenobtained by heat treatment at 580-6500C.

• m-Nitroaniline (m-NA) single crystals weredeveloped in different solvent systems anddoped in PMMA and Liquid Crystal to obtainnon-linear optic materials.

• Bright blue light emitting CdS-Polymercomposites were prepared. UV-visible spectraindicated band edge around 367nm and PLspectra indicated emission peak centreed at 408nm.

Sensors and Actuators

• Chemical synthesis of Poly(3-Methylthiophene)using FeCl3 and its characterization done forpolymeric humidity sensor.

• Multilayer PZT and PMN-PT actuators werefabricated for NPSM.

Electronics and Computer Software Export

Promotion Council (ESC)

Electronics and Computer Software ExportPromotion Council (ESC) is a non-profit,autonomous organization mandated to promoteIndia’s export of Electronics and InformationTechnology Services.

Small and Medium Enterprises

ESC has a wide base of membership, primarilycomprising of around 2200 SMEs. The Council have

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been laying emphasis on facilitating the interactionof Indian SMEs with foreign markets. Alldelegations of the Council have SMErepresentation.

During the year, the Council emphasized on marketdevelopment for small and medium enterprises asa focused effort towards market diversification forIT exports by Indian SMEs. ESC actively supportssmall enterprises in the IT sector. The Councilproposes to initiate a separate project with thespecific objective of creating awareness in foreignmarkets to highlight the capabilities of IndianSMEs, conducting market studies / surveys,participation in exhibitions / conferences, organizingroad shows and buyer-seller meets. The ultimategoal is to assist Indian SMEs in the IT sector tograduate to being global players.

Market Diversification

Over the years, ESC has emerged as the India’spremier organization for promoting export ofElectronics and IT Services to the rest of the world.During the year, the Council has undertaken severalinitiatives to diversify India’s IT export markets byfocusing on the IT markets of Latin Americanregion, the European Union, Far East, African, CIS,ASEAN and Middle East countries.

With a view to assist the exporters to promote theirproducts and services in global IT markets, theCouncil has organized participation of Indiancompanies in various overseas events, especially inpotential / newer markets of EU, Middle East andFar East. ESC’s participation to the various eventsprovided immense opportunities to the membercompanies for enhancing their IT exports to globalmarkets.

The Council has sponsored a delegation visit toEthiopia, Tanzania and Kenya. The Council has alsoorganized a delegation visit to Singapore andPhilippines during January 2005.

Incoming Delegation Meetings

The Council received several delegations fromglobal markets, which include China, Bulgaria,Mexico, Japan, Philippines, Canada, Venezuela, etc.The Council organized meetings with the memberexporters to assist them to explore the possibilitiesof cooperation in the area of InformationTechnology.

ESC Annual Export Awards

With a view to further accelerate India’s electronicsand software exports and to recognize theachievements of exporters, ESC has institutedAnnual Export Awards. To encourage womenentrepreneurs, the Council has also institutedspecial awards for outstanding WomenEntrepreneurs. The Exports Awards for 2002-03were distributed on February 14, 2005.

Indiasoft 2005

The Council (ESC) will be organizing INDIASOFT2005 (Global IT Networking event) on March 21-22,2005 at Chennai Trade Centre, Chennai.

ERNET India

The activities of ERNET are organized around fivetechnology focus areas: Nationwide Academic andResearch Network; Research and Development inthe area of Data Communication and itsApplication; Human Resource Development in thearea of High-end Networking; Educational Content;and Campus-wide High Speed Local Area Network.All the five areas have contributed significantly inthe growth of ERNET India. The innovations and

breakthrough achieved through these areasrepresent the core strengths of ERNET. During theyear, ERNET has been working to ensure that end-users enjoy the best experience and satisfaction.Robust, seamless, state-of-the-art NationwideAcademic and Research Network keep us ahead ofour competitors and deliver competitive advantageand value to educational institutions who connectthemselves on ERNET. The educational institutionsenjoy convenience of secure and seamlessconnectivity with enhanced performance atregularly decreasing connectivity cost.

The architecture of the Network is designed todeliver broadband value added services andapplications like Webcasting, IPcasting, DigitalLibrary and Distance Learning. ERNET is in aposition to connect any institution anywhere in thecountry on its backbone to share resources andundertake collaborative research and applications.The network backbone has been migrated tosupport IPv6 features. The first IPv6 enabledcommunication backbone in the country will enableresearchers in public and private sector to developand test IPv6 enabled products. The IPv6 featureson ERNET backbone will also help our users to getlarge allocation of IP addresses, peer-to-peerconnectivity and applications at their desktop.

ERNET has 13 Points of Presence (PoPs) at premiereducational and research institutions in the country.Each of the PoP is equipped with state of the artInformation Technology infrastructure that canprovide connectivity in the range of kilo bits perseconds (Kbps) to 155 Mega bits per second(Mbps). The PoPs provide access to Internet andIntranet through Leased Lines, Radio Links andDial-up Links to connect to the user institutions.These PoPs also provide technical support andinitial handholding to the users.

The Capacity of existing Satellite Hub in the C-Bandof frequency spectrum was enhanced to connect700 nos. of VSATs. The Satellite bandwidth wasaugmented by adding one more transponder of36MHz (C#17). The transponder has been used forconnecting Agricultural Universities and ResearchInstitutions in the country. With this additionaltransponder, ERNET is beaming 3 transponders onit Network. During the year, Internationalbandwidth capacity was augmented by 40Mbps.The additional International bandwidth was

installed at ERNET PoP at ERNET HeadquartersNew Delhi, Software Technology Park (STP)Bangalore, Centre for Advanced Computing (CDAC)Mumbai, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpurand Inter-University Centre for Astronomy andAstrophysics (IUCAA), Pune.

The network connects 1160 educational andresearch institutions in the country.

Reduction in Bandwidth Tariff

During the year, the Internet bandwidth chargesregistered reduction by about 45%. The reductionwas observed both in the Satellite and submarinebandwidth.

Network Operation Centre (NOC) Services

At present, the ERNET PoPs provide four types ofservices. These services include subscriberservices as well as those provided for routineoperations. Accordingly, they are termed asNetwork Access Services, Network ApplicationsServices, Hosting Services and Operations SupportServices.

Services Monitoring and Reporting

The services offered to individual customer sitesare monitored round-the-clock. The service levelsbeing offered are measured quantitatively andthese measurements are provided to the users onrequest, so that users can observe the quality ofservice they received over the month. Theperformance measurements include: link up/downtimes, link utilization in both directions, the break-up of the traffic generated by the site (web, ftp,email, etc.), and the web download performanceobtained by users at their site.

NOC Services Monitoring and Alarms

In order to detect services failures proactively andensure immediate response by staff on duty toservice outages, a system that provides visual andaudible summary alarms have been developed. Thissystem monitors the five main components of ourservice infrastructure: backbone links, subscriberlinks, web proxy service, email service, and DNSservice. The display is web based with acomprehensive status information on the startpage. Each of the status elements in this page isclick-able and provides the details of that particularstatus (cause in case of an alarm). When an alarmis shown, a click on the alarm bar displays the causeof the alarm. The tool monitors the status of primary

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MX at all the PoPs. This system has evolved andstabilized over the last 18 months and is nowavailable for access to all other PoPs.

Network Operation Centre at ERNET HQ

Work was initiated to set up Network OperationCentre (NOC) at ERNET Headquarters New Delhi.The objective of the NOC is to monitor the entireERNET Network including those of Points ofPresence round the clock and take proactive stepsfor traffic engineering and diagnose the problems ifany. The entire Network Centre is proposed to bemanned by the skilled professionals to provide allnecessary assistance to the users to diagnose theproblems and also disseminate informationreceived from CERT-India.

NOC is proposed to be equipped with modern toolsand servers like Enterprise Management System(EMS), Protocol Analyzer, Workstations, Centralizedaccounting and charging system, wall mountedprojection screens to visualize online/real timemonitoring of performance of links on ERNETbackbone across the country round the clock.

ERNET Traffic Growth

Large number of links both in the nature ofTerrestrial and Satellite has been added on thenetwork. The total average daily incoming traffic tothe ERNET has increased from 53 Gigabytes to 100Gigabytes; a daily average increase of 100% ascompared to the increase of 24% last year. Theincrease in the number of SCPC, DAMA andLeased Line customers, etc., last year to this yearis a major contributing factor to this increase inincoming traffic. The total outgoing traffic fromERNET has increased from 24 Gigabytes to 63Gigabytes as compared to last year; an overallincrease of 100% as compared to the previousyear’s increase of 29.16%. Among the recentlycommissioned SCPC, SCPC DAMA and LeasedLine customers who have dedicated the link formail traffic and generate heavy outbound mailtraffic which contributes to the major increase inthe outgoing traffic.

MOU with University GrantsCommission (UGC)

An MOU was signed between UGC and ERNETIndia on April 4, 2002 to connect all the universitiesand colleges on ERNET and establish Internetfacilities at these institutions so as to have virtual

enhancement of academic infrastructure. Underthis MOU, ERNET is a technology partner to UGCfor upgradation of network infrastructure andconnecting and interconnecting universitiesthrough the ERNET backbone. 135 Universitieswere connected on Intra and Internet throughERNET Backbone.

ERNET was also designated to host value addedservices like digital library and distance learning foruniversities and colleges. All hardware andsoftware necessary to establish the connectivity atthese universities are to be provided by ERNETboth at their end as well as user site. Connectivityhas been provided through the different feasiblemedia. First preference of ERNET is to establishthe connectivity through Terrestrial links. Theconnectivity through Satellite has been providedonly at those locations, which are in remote areasand also where the Terrestrial infrastructure is weakand cost is higher.

MOU with Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS)

An MOU was signed between ERNET India andNavodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) to providetechnological support in the area of InformationTechnology to the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and its482 schools across the country. The technologicalsupport includes connecting of the NavodayaVidyalayas in the country on Intranet and Interneton a bandwidth of 128Kbps.

100 Navodaya Vidyalayas across the country havebeen connected on Intranet and Internet with NVSHeadquarters at Delhi through ERNET backbone.Many of these schools where connectivity has

been provided are in the far-flung areas where thecommunication infrastructure is very weak. For thefirst time, many of these schools have beenconnected on Internet. Three schools are inAndaman and Nicobar and one is in LakshdweepIsland. The staff managing the connectivity atschools have been provided training to operate theVSAT network and other equipment installed at theschools. The basic training in the area of computerswas also arranged for the teachers of the NavodayaVidyalayas through the Microsoft.

MOU with Indian Council ofAgricultural Research (ICAR)

ERNET India and Indian Council of AgriculturalResearch (ICAR)/ National Agricultural TechnologyProject (NATP), Ministry of Agriculture have enteredinto an agreement to connect the agriculturaluniversities and research institutions under ICAR onIntranet and Internet through ERNET backbone.The agreement provides for extending similar kindof facilities to ICAR institutions as being provided touniversities and colleges under MOU with UGC.

In the Phase-I, 104 agricultural universities andresearch institutions across the country are to beconnected on the Intranet and Internet throughERNET backbone. The facilities are to be extendedto 182 institutions in the Phase-II of theprogramme. The entire cost of establishing theInternet and Intranet of these institutions is beingmade partly from the World Bank funding and partlyfrom the funds from Government of India.

Collaboration with European Union (EU) –Connectivity with GEANT

Under the Indo-European programme -‘Collaboration in the area of IT’, Department of

Information Technology, Ministry ofCommunications and Information Technology hasproposed to connect GEANT, an Educational andResearch Network of European Union with ERNET.The proposed connectivity would facilitate Indianuniversities, colleges and other educationalinstitutions connected on ERNET to log into thenetwork of their counterparts in Europe to shareinformation and also undertake collaborativeresearch and development. The European Unionhas proposed to provide funds for theimplementation of the project to the extent of 50%of the total cost of bandwidth connectivitybetween ERNET and GEANT.

R&D Proposal under IST Programmeof European Union

European Union under IST Programme has offeredto fund R&D in the area of Communicationincluding e-communication, Internet2, 4G Mobile,etc. Accordingly, an R&D project proposal on ‘QoSFramework for 4G Mobile networks’ wasformulated under IST Programme. The projectproposal would be executed by ERNET along withIndian Institute of Technology Madras, IndianInstitute of Science Bangalore, Indian Institute ofTechnology Guwahati, Tata Institute of FundamentalResearch Mumbai and two foreign participatingagencies, namely, Institute of Computer Scienceand Business Informatics, University of Vienna(Austria), Department of Information andCommunication Technology, University of Trento(Italy).

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National Informatics CentreThe National Informatics Centre (NIC) of theDepartment of Information Technology is providingnetwork backbone and e-Governance support toCentral Government, State Governments, UTAdministrations, Districts and other Governmentbodies. It offers network services over high-speedlong distance and local leased line Ku-band (TDMA,FTDMA, IPA and DVB and SCPC VSATs), Wireless,Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) and LocalArea Networks (LANs) with NICNET gateway forInternet resources, facilitating informatics servicesfor decentralized planning, improvement inGovernment services and wider transparency ofnational and local Governments. NIC assists inimplementing Information Technology Projects, inclose collaboration with Central and StateGovernments, in the areas of a) Centrallysponsored schemes and Central sector schemes,b) State Sector and State sponsored projects and c)District Administration sponsored projects. NICendeavour to ensure that the latest technology in allareas of IT is available to its users. NIC has signedthe MoUs with following user Departments toextend ICT solutions: a) Rajiv Gandhi NationalDrinking Water Mission (RGNDWM), Departmentof Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of RuralDevelopment and NIC, b) Department ofPanchayats and Rural Development, Government.of Chhatisgarh, Raipur c) The Directorate ofTreasuries, Accounts and Pensions, Government.of Chhatisgarh, Raipur, d) Public Health andEngineering. Department, Government ofRajasthan for development of MIS, e) Agreementfor distribution, support and Marketing ofCOLLABCAD software with Kolinga Institute ofIndustrial technology (KIIT), Bhubaneswar, Orissa.

NICNET- A Government Informatics

Network for E-Governance and Decision

Support

Due to the legacy technology the FTDMA/IPA OGHubs were closed from April 2004 and users wereupgraded to DVB VSATs. IPA VSATs have beenupgraded to DVB VSATs in Bihar, Chhattisgarh,Orissa, Gujarat and Maharashtra. DVB VSATs areinstalled in 55 CICs under Jammu and Kashmir CICproject and 11 treasuries under ChhattisgarhTreasury Project. Additional Sky blaster HUB chainis installed to accommodate more VSATs. 162VSATs under Chhattisgarh RD project are beinginstalled in the new HUB chain. Gramsat Networkwas made operational with independent Direcway6000 HUB and 350 remotes. The inbound channelsof Skyblaster HUB have increased from 32 to 52numbers with turbo coding to accommodate moreVSATs. In-house developed monitoring tool for theVSAT status is made available to the users. TheDAMA VSATS in all the states have been upgradedwith high-speed card to operate as a backup link forthe 2Mbps leased line. DAMA VSATs are installedand commissioned for providing voice, data and VCservices in districts of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh,Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Punjab, Nagaland andSikkim

Network Infrastructure Services of NIC

The network group continued to assist severalGovernment Departments in setting up thenetwork infrastructure during the year. LANupgradation was carried out in 12 major Bhawans atDelhi has been done. This will provide fiberbackbone for Bhawan LAN's, segmentation

through L-3 Switch, implementation of Anti Virussetup and centralized operation and monitoring.Around 1000 nodes have been added during theyear.

Operation and maintenance of LAN / WAN

LAN Plan implementation has been started for theMinistry of Water Resources (Bhoojal Bhawan),Simla Secretariat, addition of 200 nodes to DOPTLAN and Courts project, Cabinet Secretariat.,Chanakya Bhavan, Lok Nayak Bhavan and JaisalmerHouse and New Secretariat, Complex at Guwahati,Secretariat and other buildings in the North EasternStates, Implementation has started. NetworkSupport for events such as ELITEX, PravasiBhartiya, etc. Anti Virus solution was provided for allnetwork nodes in all major LAN's in Delhi,approximately fifteen thousand network nodes.This activity involves cleaning of all network nodes,installing AV Client, installing AV servers andreconfiguring the network. The bandwidth providedto all the major Bhawans and State Capitals, isbeing doubled. This involves about hundred E1links. 2Mbps links are being added to UdyogBhavan, North Block, Yojana Bhavan, NirmanBhavan, Krishi Bhavan, National Advisory Council,IMD, NAFED, National Security Council, ChankyaBhavan, Rajya Sabha, Doordarshan, JanpathBhavan, Lok Nayak Bhavan and IIMC.Commissioning of STM1 at Guwahati. and 2Mbpslinks are being added to all NE State Capitals fromGuwahati has been taken up 2Mbps links to Puneand Goa from Mumbai, Srinagar, Jammu and Simlafrom Chandigarh and Cochin from Trivandrum areunder implementation. Additional Internet gatewayis being implemented for NIC-DR facility at NIC-Hyderabad.

Network Security

The objective of network security is to securenetwork, servers and applications of NICNET.During the year Network security restructuring planhas been worked out and implemented for NIC (Hq)LAN. For Secure Network InfrastructureImplementation in NIC State Units, a plan wasprepared comprising of Firewall, Antivirus server,patch management, network segmentation, etc.Procurement of the infrastructure (hardware andsoftware) has been completed for 20 States, andsystems installed in 19 States. The network /services Security Policies and procedures toimprove the network security have been developed

and hosted on the website for implementation.Augmentation of Services of Computer SecurityIncident Response Capability of NIC has been donethrough provisioning of online form and responsefor the Vulnerability Assessment Service.Implementation of VPN across NICNET has beendone to enable secure access of the internalresources and for updating of critical servers.Regular auditing of Public access servers atnetwork level is conducted for the Servers installedin the States and NICHQ. Security trainings for NICand Central Government officials have been carriedout. Setup was made with tools and techniques forapplication security audit. Technical know-how wasgathered for the same. Web-sites hosted/ to behosted (about 200 in nos.) on the NICNET havebeen audited and tested for possible penetrationand exploitation such that vulnerabilities highlightedcan be removed. This is done both manually andwith the help of a tool for application security audit.Two workflow applications, namely, Firewall Rule-Entry Request System and Tour Approval Systemwith digital-signature enabling facilities have beendeveloped.

India Image Portal

India Image is a nationwide programme of NIC witha mission to extend comprehensive WWWservices to Government Ministries andDepartments starting right from consultancy, webdesign and development, web hosting, value addedweb services to promotion of web sites,enhancement of web sites and training. Wide rangeof services are being offered to variousGovernment agencies Central, State, District andBlock level. Under this project, over 2500Government of India websites are being hosted onNIC Internet Data Centre. Over 300 new websiteshave been hosted on this WWW infrastructure forgovernment Ministries, Departments, States andUTs as well as District Administrations.Government Tenders Portal for Online Publishingand Maintenance of Government of India Tenderswas developed and launched. A Web EnabledContent Management System for updating andmaintaining the content of the website of thePresident of India was developed. The content ofthe India-Image Portal was updated to include anumber of new sections featuring usefulinformation about India and its Government. AnXML Based Solution for Management for 481 BlockLevel websites under the CIC Enrich Project was

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developed. The Division also published results ofvarious exams such as those conducted by theCBSE, State Education Boards, Universities, StaffSelection Commission, and Institute of CharteredAccountants, etc., on the web servers,(http://results.nic.in). Also hosted the results ofvarious professional entrance examinations such asengineering and medical. Also extended the facilityto receive results through email and to downloadthe admit cards for certain examinations directlyfrom the net. In addition some results were alsodelivered through IVRS and SMS. Online AdmissionCounseling for AIEEE and Regional TechnicalUniversities was carried out. Live Webcast ofimportant events including Union Budget, PravasiBharatiya Divas, Rath Jatra, Republic Day, Asia ITSummit 2004, Elitex 2004, Tirupati BalajiBrahmotsavam 2004, etc., was carried out. OracleEnterprise Database Server in Cluster Mode wasset-up and operationalised in the Data Centre atNIC HQ. NIC has been designated for 'GOV.IN'Domain Registration of Government websites asper the new Domain Name Policy announced byDepartment of Information Technology.

Informatics-the E-Governance Bulletin of NIC waspublished quarterly (print as well as online version)to disseminate information about the e-governanceactivities taking place all over the Country.

Establishment of Certifying Authority at

National Informatics Centre (NICCA)

NICCA has been licensed to function as CertifyingAuthority in G2G domain, under section 21 of IT Act2000. NICCA is offering three different types ofdigital certificates as listed below, a) SMIMESigning Certificate, b) SSL Server Certificate, c) SSLClient Certificate, [Under two classes ofCertification Services - Class 1 and Class 2.]

NIC has setup a state-of-the-art secureinfrastructure and de-facto standard with biometricsensors and surveillance system of Internationalquality at NICHQ for housing the infrastructure ofNIC Certifying Authority. During the year, NICCAhas issued about 1000 digital signatures to variousGovernment users.

Government Informatics Training

Programme

A Core Competency Development Team forNational Level e-Governance Projects was created.Workshops were organized in collaboration withfour technology solution providers like IBM,

Microsoft, Oracle and Open Source for working outopen standards. Draft technical standard forInteroperability Framework of e-Governance (IFEG)was prepared. Base document of national projectswas prepared. A collaborative project developmentenvironment was set up at the Data center withsecurity through VPN server. A framework forIntranet portal for G2G/ G2E services was designedfor DIT.

For NIC professionals, training activities in opensource technologies were organized in topics likeLinux, Java, J2EE, Network, Internet, Security,Software Project Management, User InterfaceDesign, UML, Networking Trends, MobileComputing, Smart Card Technology, DataWarehousing/OLAP, etc. ManagementDevelopment Programmes for senior officers wereplanned in collaboration with IIM, Bangalore.Seminars/workshops on e-Governance wereorganized for Government officials. Some of themwere sponsored by Department of Personnel andTraining. Customized workshops for NationalProductivity Council were also conducted. Sectorale-Governance training programmes are beingdesigned now. Executive DevelopmentProgrammes on Networking, DBMS, ICT Tools fore-Readiness in Government (DOP&T sponsored),Hindi courses (DOL sponsored) were alsoconducted. Sectoral Programmes in BiomedicalInformation Retrieval, Application of IT in LibrarySciences, Automated Mapping and Customizedprogrammes for various ministries were alsoconducted. Training of QMS implementation andthe internal auditing was also done. National leveltraining calendar was printed and web hoisted. Thedivision's web portal included e-learning packages,courseware, training activities managementsystem, web casting, etc.

Videoconferencing (VC) Services

With the aim of creating high qualityvideoconferencing facility in the country using costeffective solutions, NIC has establishedVideoconferencing facility up to district level usingVSAT solutions in few selected States/Districts. Thefollowing major services were provided:Videoconferencing has been commissioned andinstalled at around 320 locations across India.

SCPC DAMA VSAT has been established at alldistricts of Uttar Pradesh (70), Maharashtra (44),Rajasthan (39), Jharkhand (23), Uttaranchal (22),

Chattisgarh (17), Madhya Pradesh (49), Punjab (18),Nagaland (13), Tripura (6) and selected districts ofBihar (11), Jammu and Kashmir (9), Orissa (7),Himachal Pradesh (3), Lakshadweep (3), Andamanand Nicobar (2). VSAT and VC installation has beencommissioned at Prime Minister’s office andPresident House respectively. During the year,Videoconferencing sessions were organized forvarious users. Honourable President of India hasutilized NIC Videoconferencing services forconducting remote interactions, inaugurations andfor delivering speeches on 15 occasions.Commissioning of 48 users Multipoint Control Unitto facilitate conferences with more number of sitesas well as facilitating simultaneous concurrentconferences has been undertaken.

Bibliographic Informatics Services

The Division continued to provide bibliographicinformation services. 3890 searches werereceived. A MetaMED search tool enablingsearching of IndMED and international PubMEDdatabases simultaneously was added to the webpage. Translated version of the web page was madepossible by using AltaVista translation tool. IndMEDsearch and display were made more users friendly.The medIND database was updated to include 26journals from 2000 onwards. Three trainingprogrammes on ‘Biomedical Information Retrieval’were conducted. Two user awareness programmesto promote the Union Catalogue were alsoconducted.

Library Services

NIC Library (http://library.nic.in) It provides CurrentAwareness and SDI services to users throughIntraNIC portal, email, document lending, InterLibrary Loan, and reference services. Also Onlineservices like ACM Digital Library, InformationTechnology Research Reports from GARTNER, andScience Direct from Elsevier Science, Internetresources, Newspaper Clippings Service-

NEWSNIC, Web browser access to books,Catalogue, articles database, journals holdings,special issues of journals, etc, are provided to NICofficials up to district level. NIC has come out witha low cost solution, e-Granthalaya LibraryManagement Software for automation andnetworking of libraries. The software has beeninstalled in many libraries in India. With a missionto identify possible areas of convergence amongthe Departments viz., Department ofTelecommunications, Department of Posts andDepartment of Information Technology in theMinistry to optimize usage of mutual resources andstrengths, a Consortium of Libraries of the Ministryof Communications and Information Technologyhas been formed.

Intellectual Property and Know-How

Services

Intellectual Property and Know-How InformaticsDivision provides the global patent Information toIndian Industries, R&D Organizations, Consultants,Patent Attorneys, Scientists, Researchers andInterested public. NIC provides three kinds ofPatent Services i.e., Bibliographic service, Abstractservice and Full text service. Beside this, NICprovides On-line Patent Bibliographic service forPatents of 1968 onwards. It contains the data of 72countries containing 36.66 Million records. Thedatabase is available on-line 24 hours a day bybrowsing the Web site http://patinfo.nic.in.This is anon-going project.

Analytics and Modeling Services

Developed a data warehouse model on import datafor Customs department. A data warehouse modelusing limited data set has been developed for theBhoomi project for the State of Karnataka. Third andfourth round of time series analysis of export-import data for RIS/Ministry of Commercecompleted. Established a centralized datawarehouse environment at NIC Head quarter. NICdivisions/state units can make use of it forundertaking data warehouse projects.

Other projects are: data warehouse and On-LineAnalytical Process (OLAP) system of export data forcustoms department and detailed data mining,Agriculture and Health data warehouse systems onvillage level information for the state of UttarPradesh, Technology demonstration and prototypedevelopment for the states of Gujarat, Maharashtraand Madhya Pradesh in the area of Business

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Intelligence, Preparation of road map for businessintelligence applications in the government - both atthe centre and state level.

Computer Aided Design Activities

The analysis project - Review of the Design ofSheet Pile Quay Wall (WQ7 Berth) using SESAMsoftware for a dredged depth of (-) 14.0 m wascarried out for Visakhapatnam Port Trust and reportsubmitted to the client in April 2004. SeismicAnalysis of Bargi Dam and Spillway Radial Gateswas taken up for Narmada Valley DevelopmentAuthority, Bhopal in October, 2004. Purchaseorders for SESAM Educational License werereceived from 5 educational institutions - NIT,Kurukshetra, Rourkela, Surathkal, UVCE, Bangaloreand PEC, Chandigarh. CollabCAD a CAD softwarewith Design, Drafting, Surface and Solid Modelerwith Numerical Control, Bill of Material andScripting facilities, was developed using OpenSource libraries and is being used by BARC, NPCIL,VSSC, ADA, DRDL. A consortium has been builtaround CollabCAD. An Initiative to put this CADSoftware, the IPR of which belongs to NIC, ineducational Institutes is being taken so that it canbe used by students as part of their study. Also, aseries of industry seminars are being planned toaddress the needs of small and Medium ScaleIndustries.

GIS and Remote Sensing Services

Major activities are Multi Layered GIS at Nationallevel as part of updation of National SpatialDatabase, Release of Web based portal of NSDB,Geocoding and mosaic king of IRS WIFS data forthe entire country, Geo-referencing of IRS LISS IIIscenes for MP and Andhra Pradesh and other dataprocessing, GIS based Emergency Planning andManagement for MAH units- completed for 20districts in 4 states and is under progress for 20districts in 10 states, GIS for retrieval ofEnvironmental Information for MP and Orissa. GISfor Dairy and Poultry is completed, Mapping ofHealth facilities in 7 districts spread across thecountry, Creation of spatial data at 1:250,000 scalefor soil, forest cover, catchments areas, etc., acrossthe country, Development of 1:50,000 scaledatabase on essential locations and networks e.g.,Railway stations, major towns, village locations,village boundaries, Railway line, etc. and Webbased GIS system for Total Sanitation Campaign.

Courts Information Systems-COURTIS

NIC has taken up the Digitization of old case files inthe Supreme Court and implemented a DocumentManagement System. Developed an applicationsoftware to display the case hearing status in eachof the Supreme Court courtrooms. Now, the lastminute dropped cases and cases including inposition places are being done through anapplication software developed by NIC.Computerization of 29 City Courts of State Capitalsin the country is being implemented.Computerization of CAT Principal Bench and its 17Benches across the country is being implemented.

Community Information Centres in the

North East

Basic services like Internet access, email andTraining to the local populace were provided by allCICs. Several citizen centric services or E-Governance services were implemented at theCICs. Some of them are E-Suvidha, a one-stopservice facilitation centre for issue of certificates,forms, etc., by the Government to citizens, RuralSoft i.e., monitoring of Government schemes forthe common man, Hospital Appointment Bookingsystem to remotely book appointments for medicaltests or consultations with specialists at theGovernment hospitals in state capitals from the

CICs, etc. E-Suvidha has been implemented inapproximately 100 CICs. Computer LiteracyProgramme (CLP) of IGNOU and Course onComputer Concepts (CCC) of DOEACC wereconducted at the CICs. Online examinations wereheld for the CCC programme using NIC's ComputerAssisted Paperless Examination System (CAPES)at the CICs. 208 students from 21 CICs and 269students from 31 CICs participated in the CAPESexam held in May and November 2004 respectively.CICs were used for publishing voters list, electionresults, etc., and uploading counting data live workduring the Elections. Tele-consultation sessionswere conducted in the area of Health. Workshopsfor need assessment for services to be provided byCICs were held at some CICs. 487 blockcommunity portals were prepared.

E-Governance Division: IntraNIC

The Intranet Portal to Empower NIC Employees,operational since October 2002, has been mademore distributive in nature by giving ‘authorpermission’ to various divisions / sections at NICHqrs and State Units and it had led NIC to becomea ‘less paper’ office.

Quality Management System

Internal Quality Audit Training was conducted and62 officials have been certified for Internal QualityAuditing by Indian Institute of Quality Management,Jaipur. Internal Quality Audit On-job Training (IQA-OJT) has been conducted in seven batches of IQA-OJTs each with eight NIC Internal Quality Auditorsalong with two STQC officers to generate auditskills amongst the Internal Quality Auditorscovering Audit Planning, Execution and Reporting.

Land Records Computerization Project

Computerization of Land Records (CLR) Project, ajoint venture between NIC and Ministry of RuralDevelopment (MRD) is currently operational to avarying degree in 582 districts in the country.

At present there are approximately 3000 RevenueCircles where a computerized copy of ROR is beingdistributed. NIC is a nodal agency for providingtechnological support for implementation of projectalong with Ministry of Rural Development. Duringthe current year, 123 tehsils have been covered inUttar Pradesh.

In continuation with Quality certification ofapplication software, KARNATAKA; ANDHARA;

MADHYA PRADESH; ORISSA have also acquiredISO 9126 certification. Security provisions based onbiometrics have been extended to all the states.

Chattisgarh; Manipur; Tripura; Himachal Pradeshhave recorded satisfactory progress in terms ofimplementation. In Manipur and Tripura, LandRecord computerizations were inaugurated forpublic delivery.

Uniform Coding Standards; Security guidelinesformulations, facility for Web enabled distribution ofROR for several states are some of noteworthyadvances in project eco-system.

Overall Computerization of Land Records continuesto remain one among the top priority in National E-governance Action Plan for UPA government and isMission mode project of Government of India. NICState units and Headquarters. have beencontinuously engaged in making it a success.

Utility Mapping Services

Major activities carried out are updation of mapsheets on scale 1:1250 covering 40-sq. km. area offour villages of Delhi. City mapping and verificationof sewage network for Delhi City, Network datacollection and its entry into the system by MTNLstaff, Reliance India Limited and TATA Cablenetwork and related data entry into the systemcompleted, 95% Gecoding of Delhi Address dataand development of Address locating application,Compilation of 150 sq. km. area of Namchi sub-division area of Sikkim State. Superimposition ofland parcel images for 30 sq-km areas on digitalbase map, undertaken Computer Aided DigitalMapping Project For Six Cities (Chennai,Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai andBangalore) from January 2005, and 5 days trainingconducted for utility agencies.

North East Informatics Services

System studies were carried out for MIS for NLCPRand NEC projects/schemes and SRS prepared forboth. Augmentation of Training infrastructure at NICNorth East state units has been underimplementation. Data centres are being set up inAssam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.Provision for Videoconferencing at District units hasbeen taken up for all 8 states. The Secretariat LANsare being established/augmented. Revamping ofDONER website has been initiated.

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NIC services to the Central Government

Ministries/Departments

Agriculture

The DACNET (http://dacnet.nic.in) Project has beenimplemented to bring in e-Governance practices inthe Attached/Subordinate offices/Directorates andField Units (172 offices) of the Department ofAgriculture and Cooperation (DAC), Intranetsolution (http://intradac.nic.in) for messaging,collaboration, knowledge sharing, paperlessautomated administrative services and enhancedself-service among employees. Impact study ofDACNET reveals that the project has increased theorganizational productivity and efficiency andimproved the delivery of services.

Major application software implemented includePlant Quarantine Information System, IntegratedPest Management Information System, Web basedQuery Modules were added to computerizedregistration of pesticides for company wise andproduct wise pesticides registration and madeoperational at http://cibrc.nic.in. Crop WeatherWatch for tobacco, oilseeds, sugarcane, wheat andmillet market prices analysis. Market IntelligenceUnits Reporting System, Bio-fertilizers Informaticson-line, Knowledge Management System ‘ e-Granthalaya’, and Farm Machinery Informatics on-line. Windows based Budget Information Systemand Intranet based Release Monitoring System andPhoto and Film Library Management InformationSystem for Directorate of Extension.

NIC has undertaken Implementation ofAGMARKNET at further 537 markets, preparationof GIS based National Atlas on AgriculturalMarketing, development of portals in regionallanguages and wider dissemination ofAGMARKNET data through mobile phones as ajoint venture among BSNL, MTNL, DMI and NIC.Dissemination of commodity prices and arrivalsinformation in Hindi was made operational.

Department of Agriculture and Cooperation,Ministry of Agriculture, has entrusted again theComputerization of Agricultural Census 2000-01and Input Survey 2001-02 to NIC on turnkey basiswith a cost estimate of Rs. 8.69 crore and the workis in progress.

DISNIC-PLAN: Information Technologyin Micro-level Planning

In order to provide a framework and to strengthenthe planning machinery in districts, it is envisagedto usher in ‘database based planning’ by building

databases, decision support systems, and internetinformation access for facilitating grass-root levelplanning in a meaningful way; to promoteinformatics tools in micro level planning tostrengthen analytical capability in districts; todevelop necessary infrastructure facilities in theDistrict Planning Cells/Boards to handle both spatialand non-spatial information in an integratedmanner; to bring in a qualitative change inmanpower to provide database and analyticalsupport to the district planning team; and to providenecessary training to narrow-down the gapbetween the planners and various subjectspecialists in districts. A project proposal has beensubmitted to Planning Commission forimplementing the project in 28 pilot districts.

Accounts

PAO - 2000 software package for Pay and AccountsOffices of the Government of India was upgradedwith several utilities. Demonstration andWorkshops were conducted at Bangalore, Mumbai,Delhi (INGAF), Ministry of External Affairs,Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, and Directorate ofAccounts, Andaman and Nicobar Islands(Videoconferencing). A new software packageCDDPAO has been developed for Cheque DrawingDDOs, which will enable export and import of datato and from PAO 2000 package. This will reducedrudgery work of data entry of CDDO vouchers byPAO and enable finalization of expenditure figurequickly. The Contributory Pension FundManagement system was developed andimplemented. NIC continued to provide support forcomputerized systems: GAINS, Loans andAdvances, DDO Code Directory, etc. Thecomposite Payroll system was enhanced/modifiedto provide linking of GPF and Salary module,inclusion of Dearness Pay, Tier 1 deduction as pernew pension scheme, new reports, etc.

Art and Culture

Manus Granthawali - a Unicode compliantmultilingual software package for metadatacompilation of about 5 million Indian manuscripts ismade operational in 33 Manuscripts ResourceCentres across the country. So far more than 1.5lakh Manus Records are created. In another majordevelopment, the mission has assigned challengingtasks of digitization of 10 lakh manuscript pages ofOrissa and Assam. Department of Archaeology andMuseums, Government of Rajasthan has entrustedNIC with the work of digital documentation of 5000artifacts of its 13 museums and videography of 10temples. Besides these the automation of grant in

aid schemes of Department of Culture and CulturalExchange Programme have been completed.

Audit

NIC assisted the office of the CAG to develop aframework and IT Audit strategy Plan to audit e-governance programs. A 3 year action Plan for ITsolutions in IA and AD department and world classIT security manual and handbook have beenprepared. CAG Portal has been set up. An excellentcenter for Information systems audit has been setup. NIC has also assisted in the implementation ofworkflow solution in the direct taxes wing of CAGoffice.

Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

Implemented Disciplinary cases MonitoringSystem in all Ministries, PSU's and Banks under theJurisdiction of the Central Vigilance Commission.Monthly Status Report of Chief Vigilance Officershas been made online and designed and developeda database Information system based on it. Webenabled Monitoring Systems for the followingprojects have been fully implemented in theCommission Vigilance Complaints MonitoringSystem and Commissioners for DepartmentalInquiries Information System. File Tracking Systemhas also been implemented in the Commission

Civil Aviation

Designed, developed and implemented CivilAircraft Registration Information System with webbased query module for DGCA. Query based onseating capacity, registration number, operator,etc., are made public on website. Web basedmedical Assessment for the pilots designed andimplemented. The Pilots can take a printout of theirmedical assessment from the website and use it.Composite payroll implemented at the Ministry.

Commerce

To facilitate the electronic communication ofbusiness documents in the international trade,Electronic Commerce (EC) / Electronic DataInterchange (EDI) for Trade project has beenstrengthened to enhance the functionality as wellas its domain. The project was selected as bestproject in the Trade Facilitation category andawarded eAsia2004 Award instituted by Asia PacificCouncil for Trade Facilitation and ElectronicBusiness (AFACT) held at Chinese Taipei. EC/ EDIportal (http://etrade.nic.in) has been launched toprovide an information resource support to allparticipating agencies like Customs, Banks and

DGFT, etc., under EC/ EDI Project. Latest ICT toolslike Digital Signatures, encryption, etc., have beenintroduced to enhance the security and authenticityduring IT based transactions in various applications.

In the Office of the Directorate General of ForeignTrade (DGFT), online filing/processing ofapplications for import/ export licenses undervarious trade promotion and regulatory schemesalong with on line submission of annual trade returnby importers/ exporters are integrated with digitalsignature and electronic payment with banks. Theproject won an award in e-Asia 2003.

Cooperative

Development of software for business transactionsat NAFED Branches particularly the AgriculturalCommodity Sales Operations has been developedand pilot testing undertaken at NAFED Indore andJaipur Branches. IFFCO five VSATs at Head Officeand Zonal Offices upgraded to DVB technologybased Sky blaster VSATs for faster network access.The Market Borrowing System software for NCDCwas modified to include Education Cess imposedby Government of India. The Software modules forall the processes for grant of loans by NCDC viz.,Application Details, Sanction, Releases, De-sanctions, Advance Releases and Generation ofreports completed and installed at user site forTesting.

Customs, Central Excise Project and EDIServices

Enabled e-filing of Central Excise documents -Excise Return 1/2/3 (ER 1/2/3). The project waslaunched on June 30, 2004 at all India level and theassesses are filing the returns online throughInternet. ECIR (Electronic Challan Integrated withREVACT): ECIR is being launched to capture theCentral Excise Duty payment details paid by theassesses in the banks through challan. Theinformation will be captured online through aservice provider and will be pooled on a centralserver of NICNET. SERMON is operational in 93Central Excise Commission rates and 480Divisional Offices. Additional utilities have beenprovided to the user for information retrieval.

Indian Customs EDI System (ICES) application isaugmented with additional functionalities to covermore number of documents for online processing.Nearly 98% of export documents and 90% of theimport declarations are getting processed underthe EDI system. Trade is facilitated for e-filing of

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import and export declarations. Nearly 50% of thedocuments are being filed over Internet. An ICE isoperational in 31 Customs location of which 8 areoperationalized during 2004-05. NIC is providingtechnical assistance to all the Customs locations.ICES enables message exchange with Customstrading partners namely - Banks, DGFT, AirportAuthority of India and Ports, etc. Around 135message formats have been adopted andimplemented.

Defence

File Tracking, Court Cases monitoring, AssetsManagement Applications initiated in DefenceMinistry on MOD LAN. Web sites of Navy,Coastguard, Armed Forces, CGDA, DRDO hostedon NIC Server. Tenders Hosting of Army OrdnanceCorps, MOD and Ordnance Factory Board, Ex-Servicemen Grievance Portal, DNS and Web portalfor Armed Forces, CGDA Portal Defence tendershave been implemented.

Disinvestments

Article Information system and Visiting CardInformation system have been implemented in theDepartment. Website maintenance and updation aswell as LAN coordination are regular serviceprovided by the NIC.

Energy

Major activities are updation / enhancement ofwebsites of Ministry, Restructuring of LANbackbone, Installing 2 Mbps leased line, Datamonitoring and Tenders/Bidding web site, Intra-Ministries web portal. MIS on REC, Coalproduction/movement, Lakshadweep citizens,Power and Coal sector GIS, PMO referenceMonitoring system, Hydro Power PerformanceReview, Parliament Questions, OPA, CPS, e-Granthalaya, File Tracking System (FTS), Noticeboards, leave monitoring, Annual Action Plan,Incumbency Monitoring of Board Level Officers,PMS, Demand and Supply Monitoring, Adulterationissues, Export/Import Monitoring, CapacityAddition, Training on IT tools, Payment of salarythrough Electronic Clearing Scheme of RBI, onlineaccess of information under COALNET, e-filemovement, Enhanced Web Site by putting BasicPetroleum statistics.

External Affairs

Provided technical support for Visa Issuancesystem at Colombo and London, 30 passportoffices in India and 200 District Passport Cells

conducted System study at consular wing of HighCommission of India (HCI) Islamabad. This is aturnkey solution from hardware procurement andinstallation to software development andimplementation. System study for computerizationof CGI New York has been done. New version ofPISON (central system) has been released whichprovides instantaneous services like issue of losscircular, impounding passports and posting thegranted services by PIAs in India and IndianMissions abroad, ID card issuance system forForeign diplomats in India, Composite payroll hasbeen implemented at MEA (HQ). IntegratedMission Accounting System has been tested andapproved by CCA-MEA and ready forimplementation. New Version of web Registrationof passport applications has been designed anddeveloped with the generation of Barcode for FileReference Number.

Environment and Forests

GIS based Emergency Planning and Responsesystem implemented in four states and is beingextended to 10 states now. It assists the civiladministrators and public in case of any accident inMajor Hazardous industries. Web based ForestClearance Proposal Monitoring Software helps inapproving proposals for diversion of forestland fornon-forestry purposes. IFS Officers Cadremanagement website has been upgraded with theemphasis on the training, posting and deputation ofIFS officers. GIS based Indian State BasicEnvironmental Information Database and NationalRiver Conservation Directorate is under planning.

Fertilizers

Web Based Applications developed andimplemented in Department of Fertilizers forPlanning and Monitoring of Production,Distribution/ Movement, Concessions/ Subsidiespayments.

Finance

Market Loan Monitoring System has beendeveloped and implemented for Rupee LoanSection of the Office of CCA of the Ministry ofFinance. It enables to monitor the internal debtraised by the Government through differentinstruments viz., Treasury Bills (14/91/182/364days), Market Loans, Compensation and otherbonds, Ways and Means Advance, Loans fromInternational financial institutions, National SmallSavings Fund (NSSF), Investment of Surplus cashbalances.

Loans, Grants and Investments Monitoring Systemhas been developed and implemented for StateLoan section of the Office of CCA of the Ministry ofFinance. It enables to monitor the releases tostates made by Ministry of Finance, therepayments made by the States, defaults andoutstanding balances in respect of loans, grantsand investments.

Training Circular Information System has beendeveloped and implemented. Composite PayrollSystem was implemented in the Department ofEconomic Affairs. Intranet was established forEconomic Division of Department of EconomicAffairs to disseminate information to officersregarding various economic indicators.

Food, Public Distribution and ConsumerAffairs

The turnkey project on Integrated InformationSystem for Food grains Management (IISFM) hasbeen implemented for the Food Corporation ofIndia. A network based Application softwaredeveloped by NIC is to be deployed at 1400 FCIlocations. Project includes H/W, training, supportand networking. Integrated Computerization of BISActivities is another major project under whichturnkey solution is provided for deploying aworkflow application for Issue and Monitoring of ISILicenses to Industry CMMS at all 33 offices of BIS.Software and hardware have been provided forapplication areas like Standard Formulation, Payroll,File monitoring and Library.

Food Processing Industries

INTRANET solution for bringing e-governance andless paper office has been implemented in theMinistry of Food Processing Industry.

Health and Family Welfare

More than 350 PCs of the Ministry are connectedto the Local Area Network (LAN), which in turn,connected to NICNET through RF Link and leasedline circuits. Updation of the web-site was beingregularly done in respect of the all the threedepartments, viz., Departments of Health, FamilyWelfare and AYUSH (Indian System of Medicine).

NIC designed the data entry and report software forthe survey of health facilities. The data so collectedhas been used for mapping of the health facilitiesusing Geographical Information System (GIS). NIChas initiated the development of a web-based

application for data compilation of all theGovernment Health facilities across India.

Home Affairs

Immigration Control System (ICS) Applicationsoftware has been successfully implemented atBangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Cochin, Calicut,Thiruvananthapuram and Ahmedabad ProjectProposal for Networking of all Immigration CheckPosts (ICPs) with Bureau of Immigration project isin the advanced stage of completion, PassportReading Machines (PRMs) have been installed atIGIA Delhi. The ICS application software integratedwith PRMs, The new Immigration control softwarehas been developed incorporating additionalrequirements of the BOI. The web-based ICSapplication software has been implemented atIndira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, Webbased version of the package Office Procedure andAutomation (OPA) has been released. Visa ControlSystem for Bangladesh Nationals implemented atHCI, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Integrated IPS MonitoringSystem - designed, developed and implemented.Computerization of Reception Organization inNorth Block has been carried out. LAN extended atMHA, North Block, Jaisalmer House and Lok NayakBhavan.

Human Resource Development

Provided Automation Support for the Conduct ofAIEEE 2004 Examination involving Development ofAIEEE 2004 website with url: http://aieee.nic.in orhttp://ccb.nic.in for hosting the details ofExaminations, syllabus, admit card information andpublication of results. All India Pre-Medical/DentalColleges Entrance Examination: Computerizedinvolving acknowledgement of receipt ofapplication forms, admit card and results,Development of Systems RequirementSpecifications for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) aftermaking field visits to three States. ProvidedTechnical Support to Central Counseling Board foronline counseling of All India Engineering/Pharmacy/ Architecture Entrance Examination(AIEEE) 2004, Uttar Pradesh Technical University foronline counseling for UPTU-SEE 2004, GuruJambeshwar University, Hisar, Haryana for onlinecentralized counseling for CEE-2004. The websiteKendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has been redesignedand hosted on NIC server. Results of therecruitment of the teachers have been published onthe website. Draft and final lists of transfers have

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been ported on the website after the developmentof web access software packages in consultationwith KVS and NIC has setup a 12 nodes LAN/WANconnectivity at Book Promotion office at CurzonRoad.

Industry

Implemented web based system for i) IndustrialPark Scheme for Department of IPP ii) Counseling,Retaining and Redeployment of PSU employeeswho have taken VRS, iii) Flash Results and FactSheet of PSUs under DHI iv) Reports and querieson Survey database for Board for Reconstruction ofPESs, v) Online Investors Grievances RedressalSystem, Corporate Information System for largesize non government companies in Ministry ofCompany Affairs ICT support initiated forCommission on Enterprises inUnorganized/Informal Sector under Ministry of SSI.Websites developed and launched for ROCHyderabad, ROC Delhi and Haryana, Cost AuditBranch, Investors Education Protection Fund ofMinistry of Company Affairs and OECD GlobalForum Website on International Investment.

Investor/Citizen services centric feature andcontent improvisation for the websites of Ministryof Company Affairs - for Investors GrievanceRedressal Department of IPP. Interactive chat andbulletin board service, BIFR for online status ofregistered cases with BIFR, web site for the Payand Account Office, Industry, website for the TariffCommission and website for counseling, retainingand redeployment of PSU employees.

Company Directory (CD-ROM) Series 6.0(Commercial Product) released containingregistration details in respect of over 6.52 Lacscompanies in India.

Information and Broadcasting

Conducted online Web Based CAPES for DOEACCcourses all over India at 98 centers and at CICs inNorth East. Other activities are Results DataTransmission over NICNET to DD for broadcast forGeneral and Assembly Elections. Result IVRS forCBSE, Haryana and HP Board Results, IVRS forCPWD (12 Lines) Courtnic (2lines) on NIC Server,AG Haryana and NAGPUR GPF and Pension IVRS,developed GUI based Intra Websites for DG(DD),Computerization of Commercial Billing andAccounts at Mandi House, Live News Bulletin andTV Bulletin Operations run 24 hours from News

Room Automation Services, Video BroadcastServices of DD Channel to North East, VC sessionand Telemedicine (Doctors meet over VC), DDNews Websites http://www.ddinews.com andhttp:// www.ddindia.com are successfully hostedand managed. Unique feature on the site isStreaming Live Video of news.

Information Technology

IntraDIT – a G2G/ G2E Portal has been madeoperational to give a single window access tovarious applications and services related to anindividual. Portal provides access to variousapplications such as file tracking system (OPA),project monitoring system, parliament questionand answer, expenditure monitoring and services/features such as Pay slip, GPF statement, incometax calculation sheet, personal details, educationdetails, leave details, notices/ circulars/ up comingevents, instant messaging, message board, usefullinks, etc. Under G2E program, in order to empowerthe employees more and more information is beingmade available on the Portal.

Labour

National project on development of 'CommonApplication System for Employment Exchanges'has been initiated. Automation of Protectorates ofEmigrants has been completed and implementedin Delhi and Chandigarh in the first phase. Trackingsystem for conciliation of industrial disputes by theIndustrial Relations Division has beenimplemented.

Project monitoring systems for i) National ChildLabour Project (NCLP), and ii) labour welfareschemes connecting all regional offices of DirectorGeneral of Labour Welfare are under development.Software maintenance support has been providedfor a) the databases of ITIs and other traininginstitutes of DGET, b) application software formanagement of cases of retrenchment, layoff andclosure in industrial units.

National Human Rights Commission

LAN was recreated at new location. Same softwarehas been implemented at Maharashtra andMP.Natural Hazards Management InformationSystem As a part of ‘Natural Disaster KnowledgeManagement Network programme’ of NIC, aframework has been designed and the portal(http://nhmis.nic.in ) development is in progress.Experiences of NIC for providing the ICT support

during the recent major disasters have beendocumented and published on the web site. Thedrought vulnerability Atlas development is inProgress. As a part of drought vulnerability Atlasdevelopment, drought prone districts informationand the rainfall information system (Version-1) havebeen completed.

Official Language Department

NIC implemented Office Procedure Automation(OPA) package in Hindi in the Department. Technicalsupport was continued provided to the Departmentfor its portal and computerized systems relating tomonitoring of Town Official LanguageImplementation Committees, Hindi SalahkarSamitis, Bilingual Hardware/Software InformationSystem, etc.

Parliament

The existing software for Question Branch of LokSabha Secretariat for Notices of Questions, whichwill be tabled during the question hour, has beenconverted to Windows based platform.

Pension and Pensioners Welfare

Upgraded ICT infrastructure at CPAO using Router,2Mbps Leased lines, Switches, thin clients, etc.Reengineering of few Modules of CPAO applicationfor development and implementation has beendone. Designed, developed and implementeddatabase system for consolidation andreconciliation of demographic and contributioninformation received from PAOs of Central Civil,Railways, Post and Telegraph and Defence for newentrants to Government service.

Personnel and Administrative Reforms

The system implemented are file tracking systems(FTS); record management information system(RMIS) along with integrated FTS; A centralizedSingle Portal Public Grievance Redress andMonitoring System (PGRAMs) replacing theexisting PGRAMs; E-GPF/other advancesinformation system; and, Centralized single portalweb-enabled disciplinary cases monitoring andmanagement information system (DCMMIS) in allPSUs, online data updation on posting/transfer ofIAS Officers by all cadres in the states through acentralized web-enabled IAS personnel informationsystem; INTRA IAS-Portal and IAS E-Mail for IASofficers; INTRA-MOP Portal for the officials ofMOP; BUDGET MONITORING SOFTWARE; ACCdecisions information system; ACR digitization ofIAS officers; decision support system (DSS) forcreation of panel for postings under CSS.

Planning Commission

Enhancements and updates were carried out in thewebsite of Planning Commission including TenthFive Year Plan (2002-2007). Training Programmes forthe awareness of latest technology for officers ofPlanning Commission conducted for their IT relatedneeds. Designed and developed a web basedinformation system for centrally sponsoredschemes for Plan Coordination Division. Designedand developed database for departmental recordsection, for maintenance of Annual ConfidentialReports of officers /officials. A web enabledcomprehensive database for procedural reforms inGovernments interface with public has beendeveloped. A web-enabled retrieval system wasdeveloped for Labour, Employment and ManpowerDivision of Planning Commission. OPA has beenimplemented in Planning Commission.

Posts

The following projects have been implemented inall the Postal Circles/Regions: ePost, Postal LifeInsurance, Rural Postal Life Insurance, Head PostOffice Transaction Processing System for PLI(HPOTPS), PLI (MIS) software for circles, TenderInformation system, Compilation of Accounts atcircle (CPACT) and Regional level PensionAccounting (RPACT) information system and GPFAccounting software.

Budget Accounting Information System sinceOctober 2000, Capital Building ProjectsPerformance Indicator Review System for monthlyreview to Secretary (P), Compilation of Accounts(DOP) for submission of CGA (PACT) usingCONTACT software, All India Remittancestatements / State wise figure of small scalecollection for Ministry of Finance, Reserve Bank ofIndia information system, central check register ofDirectorate and Pay Roll have been implemented.Hosting facility has been provided for various citizencentric applications like speed post tracking, publicgrievances, money order, etc.

Programme Implementation and Statistics

Software for monitoring of works recommended byHon’ble MPs under MPLADS was developed andimplemented in all the districts of the country. Webenabled version of the application has also beenlaunched. Web enabled application to get data fromstates for monthly report of Twenty PointProgramme of the Government has beenimplemented.

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Continued providing support for development/modifications for the projects monitoring (formonthly monitoring of central sector projectscosting Rs. 100 crore and above, and quarterlymonitoring of central sector projects costing Rs. 20crore and above, Member of Parliament Local AreaDevelopment Scheme Twenty Point Programme(TPP) of the Government and monitoring ofselected infrastructure sectors.

Road Transport and Highways

Information System developed for the basic roadstatistics of India covering information on allcategories of roads. Intranet for the Department ofRoad Transport and Highways designed andlaunched. Document Management System(DMIS)for monitoring movement of receipts and filesimplemented after extensive training of officers andstaff of the Department.

As an e-Governance initiative, Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways initiated the project ofcomputerization of all the RTO’s, and issuance ofSmart Card based Driving License and VehicleRegistration Document. Ministry entrusted NIC towork as Technical Consultant for the completeproject. Following activities are performed underthis project:

• Rollout of National Symmetric Key Infrastructure• Rollout of issuance of Smart Card based Driving

License and Vehicle Registration, The states ofDelhi, West Bengal and Jharkhand have rolled outand the Driving License and Vehicle RC’s areissued in form of SCOSTA compliant Smart Cards.

• The states of Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Gujarat,J&K, and Nagaland are in advanced stage to startthe rollout of this project.

Rural Development

NIC extended full technical support in NationalProject Committee deliberations for approval ofproject proposals for state level computerization ofPHEDs/Jal Nigams/Water Boards. Other majorprojects are compilation and presentation of AllIndia Habitation Survey data for Rural Water SupplyStatus in 21 States (9,00,000 habitations) of thecountry, development of online monitoringsystems for Swajal Dhara (Phase II), total sanitationcampaign (TSC), normal gram purushkar (NGP)programmes of the Department in both water andsanitation sectors. Intranet Portal of the Ministry‘Daily’ was revamped with scope enhancementand included majority of functions required in day-

to-day usage by staff of the Ministry. It wasprovided with application software packages forSGSY Special Project, DRDA staffing pattern,SARAS online (to support the rural productexhibition in Annual Trade fair at Pragati Maidan).Prepared, distributed BPL software and providedtechnical support during the implementation.Provided technical consultancy on PMGSYcomputerization and CAPART computerizationproject. National Panchayat Portal(http://panchayat.nic.in) was prepared and waslaunched by Hon’ble Minister for Panchayati Raj.

Coordinated various efforts related to softwarepreparation and implementation of back-endsoftware solution for rural PRIs. The packageincluded PRIASoft (Panchayati Raj AdministrationSoftware package, http://priasoft.nic.in), with itsother variations such as accounting software(Orissa, TN, Pancha-Lekha for MP, etc.,), Taxevaluation for houses in villages (Aasthi forKarnataka), e-Panchayat in AP for rural PRIs.

Under the Computerized Rural InformationSystems Project implementation of Rural Soft(http://ruralsoft.nic.in) for stateRD/DRDAs/Blocks toprocess the data related to poverty alleviationschemes and RuralBazar(http://ruralbazar.nic.in) tostrengthen the marketing efforts of productsproduced by rural artisans. Released ‘DRDA Portals’software. The product has been tested for qualityby STQC and certified. Research project on’Community level ICT initiatives in India’ with Asia-Pacific Research Centre at Stanford University, USAundertaken. Released customized version of enrich(Community Software Solution Framework) toWHO, Akshaya project of Government of Kerala,Info Youth Portal for UNESCO and One World SouthAsia for the Open Knowledge Network Centres ofNorth India and Sri Lanka. Provided technicalexpertise to UNESCO (Paris) in translating enrichinto French language.

Science and Technology, Biotechnology andOcean Development

Web based software for National Survey on R&DExpenditure completed generating R&D statisticsand handbooks. Implemented Software for PROBEtargeting the students, meteorological departmentand research institutions in Uttaranchal. Web basedOcean Science and Technology Awareness quizorganized. Intranet for Department of OceanDevelopment and Department of Scientific andIndustrial Research undertaken. Virtual Private

Network is under planning to establish electronicconnectivity between the subordinate offices.

Shipping and Transport

Computerized system on commodity wise cargohandled by minor and medium ports designed,developed and implemented. DocumentManagement System (DMIS) for monitoringmovement of files and receipts in department ofshipping implemented. Support Services (includinghourly updation of shipping website) provided tothe control room setup for monitoring movement ofships between mainland and Andaman and NicobarIslands carrying materials for Tsunami Victims.

Social Justice and Empowerment andTribal Affairs

National Informatics Centre has prepared anInformation Technology plan on e-Governance in theMinistry. Developed website on the Status ofResettlement of the affected families in differentstates under Sardar Sarovar Project as per thedirective of PMO. The Universally accessible portalof Rehabilitation Council of India has been designedand launched. Websites for various autonomousorganizations have been maintained as desired bythe organizations. Network architecture wasdesigned and connectivity was provided throughRF link at Jeevan Prakash Building. OfficeProcedure Automation software has beenimplemented.

Telecommunications

Settlement of subsidy claims for the telecomoperators by USO across the country has beenimplemented. Website for the Village PublicTelephones (VPTs) has been designed andmaintained to monitor their performance. TelecomAccounting Software (TACT) is operational in alltelecom circles.

Textile

An intranet portal has been developed to provide anintegrated interface for various informationservices and applications like MIS on TextilesSectors, day-to-day office automation, etc. FileMonitoring System is successfully operationalizedat all the functional nodes of the Ministry. A website maintaining various Handlooms designs ofWeavers along with the latest fashion trends hasbeen released on NIC web server for the

Handlooms sector. Database on objects of NationalHandicrafts and Handloom Museum is developedand will be made available on Internet as aknowledge resource.

Tourism

A web-based software has been designed andimplemented at NIC web server for managing theinventories of 8 categories and 181 subcategorieslikes maps, brochures, etc. The software servestwo major purposes one to provide stockmaintenance facility to LTC and Indian TouristOffices.

Projects Monitoring System is developed tomonitor the projects sanctioned to variousagencies such as ASI, CPWD, and ITDC, etc.Foreign Tourists Arrival system has been continuedthis year. File tracking system has beenimplemented in the Ministry.

Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation

NIC has taken up the computerization of landmanagement for Land and Development Office. Ithas completed the development andimplementation of the conversion module forconverting leasehold properties into freehold. Theother modules such as Substitution and Mutationof properties are currently under development.Composite Payroll System has been implemented

Water Resources

A database on approximately 20 million minorirrigation structures in the country has been createdand Decision Support System has beenimplemented in 25 States/UT’s under the projectentitled ‘Computerization of 3rd Census of MinorIrrigation Schemes’.

Local Area Network, comprising of 150 nodes, hasbeen established at Central Soil and MaterialsResearch Station (CSMRS) to provideInternet/NICNET connectivity. Website (bilingual)http://csmrs.nic.in for CSMRS has been publishedto disseminate the information to citizen.

Flood Forecast Warning and Network PerformanceAppraisal System has been implemented by theCentral Water Commission (CWC) to facilitateintegration of data from these sites on daily basis,generation and dissemination of flood bulletins onthe website http://cwc.nic.in.

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Women and Child Development

NGO monitoring system has been developed andimplemented. Network based GIS applicationintegrating spatial data up to village level and non-spatial data including DWCD data and census hasbeen taken up. National Resource Centre forWomen (NRCW) is being conceptualized totally onvirtual cyber space for its location and access notonly in India but across the entire world.Implemented Budget Monitoring System and FileTracking System in the Department. Developed andImplemented the MIS of Swayamsidha schemesfor monitoring the 38 point programmes of the selfhelp group.

Youth Affairs and Sports

The Sports Portal called Sportal was launched.Document Management Information System(DMIS) has been partially implemented. A web-based package for monitoring Grant-in-aid releasedto NGOs and State Government has beendeveloped, Software for DCC, SAI is underdevelopment. Cabling done for establishment ofLocal Area Network at DCC, Computer Centre.MoU between Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan andNIC for integrated computerization of NYKSactivities has been finalized. Provided IT support toNational Youth Commission.

NICNET Support to State Government

Andhra Pradesh

Smart Village/ePanchayat Project implemented inabout 40 Panchayats in Andhra Pradesh.Successfully hosted Asia IT Ministers’ Summit atHyderabad. Developed e-Khazana software forTreasury computerization. Implemented e-Hospitalin about 10 hospitals. Developed and implementedfinancial accounting system for DRDAs and is beingimplemented in all States. Initiated softwaredevelopment for Panchayat Raj EngineeringDepartment (PHED). Developed and implementedsoftware for financial accounting of University ofHyderabad. Developed and implemented onlineweb based LRMIS (Land Records ManagementInformation System). Installed Disaster RecoverySite (DRS) for Delhi SAN Data Centre at Hyderabad.Installed and operationalized Andhra Pradesh SANData Centre. Hosted all Land Records of AndhraPradesh on the web for public access. ExtendedCARD project for online web based access forpublic.

Arunachal Pradesh

Payroll software Ver2.0 developed and deployed.Customization of Employment Exchange Softwarecompleted. Web based Income Certificate softwaredeveloped. Web based Helicopter Seat BookingSystem developed for the Department of CivilAviation. Design and development work of thewebsite of HE the Governor of AP initiated. Officialwebsite of the Department of Civil Aviation hasbeen designed, developed and hosted. Website forState Transport Services developed and launched.Development of web based MIS package for PHED,Government of AP has been taken up in the State.Secretariat LAN established at Civil Secretariat.

Assam

Major activities are pension and pensionersgrievance monitoring system for pension paymentorders, Gratuity payment and other admissibilityreports for Pension Department, Teachers Databasefor all Government and provincialised schools ofAssam for more than 2.2lakhs teachers, PIS forForest Department, National Register forCitizenship of Assam, 'Dharitri' a Land RecordComputerization software for implementation indistricts. Website for Legislative Assembly waslaunched. Web Based File monitoring system, MISfor Chief Electoral officer, Assam developed andDak Monitoring System for CM office. e-Suvidhaimplemented in Kamroop districts through CICs.

Bihar

The total branch automation (TBA) wasimplemented in 11 branches of the Bihar State Co-operative Bank located in Patna, Jamshedpur andDhanbad. The Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN)Information System was developed as the firstsystem of the Application Suite for Value Added TaxManagement Information System (VAT-MIS) forBihar. The STAMINA (Sales Tax ManagementInformation System Network Aided) washorizontally transferred to the Nagaland State. TheGPF Information system was implemented at GPFDirectorate Patna and selected district level GPFOffices of the State. Websites were designed anddeveloped for: Patna High Court and Department ofPublic Relations, Government of Bihar. The SchoolComputer Centres consisting of 50 client systemsand one server was implemented under the projectsanctioned by the State Government. 7 SchoolComputer Centres are already operational. 7

training programmes were conducted for variousGovernment Departments of the State. The e-governance plan for IT infrastructure creation andhorizontal spread of e-Governance applications inthe districts of the state has been prepared.

Chattisgarh

e-kosh system has been implemented for onlineTreasury Computerization at Districts and SubTreasury level by connecting the offices throughVSATs. Software developed for excise departmentfor automation of draw of lots for liquor contractawarding. Software for automation of variousphases of Assembly Election 2003 and GeneralElection 2004 was developed/implemented in alldistricts. Electoral rolls kept on web for publicaccess. Enhanced Land Records software andincorporated security features based on biometricfinger print verification.

Delhi

Major activities carried out are WAN for DelhiSecretariat established in Nine Districts, EducationDepartment; E-Dastavej under implementation in 2more districts; Land Records: Kahtauni (ROR)hosted on website; e-Praman Patra softwareimplemented in all Districts, status made availablethrough IVRS and SMS; PAO 2000 software underimplementation in 10 PAO's; Computerization ofPFA and L&B Department achieved; e-COURTIS(Court Cases Information System of DelhiGovernment) implemented for Delhi Government;Computerization of Social Welfare Departmentdone for Ten Financial Assistance schemes, Data ofOld Age Pensioners (about 1,30,000) is available onWebsite; Letter Monitoring System implemented;Web Site Hosting of over 20 Departments in oneyear; Web Based software for Pulse PolioImmunization Programme developed andimplemented; Support for 7th AISES project ofNCERT.

Goa

NICNET and Goanet were integrated. About 60offices connected to Goanet. A Data Centre isbeing set up. Bills processing, compilation, receiptsand payments modules have been developed.Pension Accounting Module is under development.Online Mutation System for Property Cards (CityLand Records) has been developed andimplemented. Mutations are carried out on line atall 11 taluka offices and four city survey offices.

Municipal Administration Software, coveringregistration of Births and Deaths, House Tax, TradeLicenses and Accounts, has been implemented inall 13 Municipal Councils. Infogram is beingimplemented in 15 Village Panchayats. For GeneralElections 2004, implemented a System for postingof polling staff, monitoring voter turnout online andcounting. Organized 17 training programmes 293officers/ staff were trained and 21 Web Sites havebeen designed/hosted.

Gujarat

NIC is Total Solution Provider for Panchayat,Agriculture, Forest, Gujarat Assembly, Women andChild and Information departments. IntegratedDisease Surveillance and district panchayataccounting is implemented in all districts. The landrecord is made operational in all 225 Talukas, RationCard in 190, One Day Governance in 199 talukasand e-Gram in 400+ villages. The panchayat portal isprepared in Gujarati. HBA/MCA system for DPPFand application for Directorate of Insurance isimplemented. Property Card System for UrbanLand Record and Sarathi is implemented in onedistrict. A generic application e-Patrak is developedand implemented in three departments. Lodgingand Boarding billing is implemented at GujaratBhavan. In Gujarat Vidhan Sabha E-Granthalaya,Payroll, PIS, Software for Research Branch areimplemented. Management System for ITIsadmission 2004 is automated. A media responsesystem is implemented at Secretariat and alldistricts. PAO, Ahmedabad is made operational. Theweb based intranet applications like Pension case,Pay and Account bill status, essential commoditiesprices, land record, BPL survey queries, monitoringof Police verification of passport applications, ICDS,etc., and Antivirus solution for SWAN are madeoperational. The digital signature certificates areissued to NIC, Gujarat personnel. Trainings arrangedfor Agmarknet project. Flash statistics for 7th AllIndia survey is published.

Haryana

The major projects are Employees Portal with morethan 95 lakh GPF/Pensions records for 2.80 lakhplus employees, SOCJIS Workflow based SubOrdinate Courts Justice delivery and JudicialInformation System), e-Health. Net (Eight softwarepackages implemented in all districts, Onlinecounseling for Haryana CEET-2004 for around20,000 candidates - 100% transparency achieved,

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e-Finance.Net (Workflow based Integrated FinanceInformation System), Web enabled studentsInformation System for 21 GovernmentPolytechnics, Police.Net (Six Software packages forG2G and dynamic Web Portal for G2C domain),HaPPIS - Haryana Pensions Processing InformationSystem for 13+lacs social welfare pensioners,Property Registration (HARIS), Land Records(HALRIS), Road Transport (Sarthi and Vahan),Treasuries (OTIS), Gram Panchayats (e-Gramvikas.Net - Sarkar Apke Dwar ProgrammeSystem with 95000+ projects details, VATMACS -Haryana first state to implement VAT System,House Tax - 10 lacs properties data in database,Agriculture (DACNET, Agriculture MarketingNetwork), Integrated Services under Nai Disha EkalSewa Kendra, e-Food.Net, SAN based HaryanaState Data Centre with 01 TB storage capacity.Haryana School Education Board Exams andResults on Web, Web services in G2G, G2C, G2Edomain on continuing basis, 3000+ governmentemployees trained, Lok Sabha General Elections -2004, Passport, Customs and Excise, High Courtprojects.

Himachal Pradesh

Major activities carried out are implementation ofHimBhoomi (land records computerization) in allthe districts of HP and making 50 tehsils online,Implementation of HimRis (Himachal RegistrationInformation system) firstly in District Shimla andSolan followed by replication in all the districts,establishment of Pehal (E-Governance Centres) in10 new sub-divisions, implementation of REFNIC(Reference Monitoring) in all branches of HPSecretariat and also in few of other departments,implementation of Online Treasury System (OTIS) inremaining 7 districts and Implementation of E-Granthalaya in HP Secretariat. and Vidhan SabhaLibrary.

Jammu and Kashmir

55 CIC operational, Urdu electoral rolls software,Court Cases Monitoring software implemented at 5places. Issue of Birth and Death certificatesoftware implemented at 2 places. Developmentof Scanning of Old Land Record Software,Implementation of GPF (GENPROFIT) software atCivil Secretariat and Leh, MIS for Service SelectionBoard, Treasury software integration with bank atthree locations. Support to Election department forconduct of Parliamentary election, DRDA portal for

2 district, website of State Vigilance department,website of Raj Bhawan, website of J&K schemes,website of Election department, finalization of5,00,000 BPL family database. Development /Implementation of software for State SelfEmployment, NICNET: Video Conferencing facilityat 4 new locations, Up gradation of districts VSAT tosky blaster, LAN at High Court Jammu, 2 Mbpsleased line in Jammu. 6 days training to 110 CICoperators.

Jharkhand

Implementation of VAHAN and SARATHI in DistrictTransport Offices. Implementation of TreasuryComputerization District Treasuries. Implementedweb enabled GPF information for JharkhandGovernment Employees. Implemented Web basedMobile billing Information System developed forBSNL, Jharkhand Telecom circle. Technical Supportprovided to the Lok Sabha Election 2004.Developed computerized Annual Budget for theJharkhand. Computerized 7th All India EducationSurvey. Successfully provided technical support forall outdoor. 24 Nos. of VSAT based and 50 Nos. ofISDN based Video Conferencing Systems used byHon’ble CM, Ministers, and Secretaries inoperation. Video Conferencing being used betweenJail and District Court, Ranchi. Providing technicalsupport for online inaugurations by CabinetMinisters on special occasions. Maintaining about400 Internet nodes in Jharkhand Secretariats.

Karnataka

BHOOMI4 implemented in 5 talukas. Land Recordsdocuments at 25 Village Kiosks through web.BHOOMI integrated to Simputers, bar code, PKI;integrated with Land Registration and SurveyDepartments data. SARATHI and VAHAN in 5 moreRTOs.Pilot to replicate data of 5 RTOs fordissemination to Centralized server. RAITAMITRAWebsite for updation by District agriculturalofficers. Bhoophala software for soil health centresin 2 pilot districts. KRISHI MARATA VAHINI-33more markets equipped. ELECTRONIC TENDERSYSTEM-Pilot operational at APMC Mysore forGate, tendering computerization’s function onhandheld devices. SAHAKARA DARPANA-20,000societies audit report on abridged balance sheet,profit and loss account, irregularities and ration cardanalysis. AHARA, bilingual website forGovernment’s Food Policy; over 50 lakh BPL familyparticulars, 20,000 fair price shops. Pilot for

Allotment software being implemented. SAMANYAMAHITHI data mapped to Census 2001 codes anddata up-to village level. AASTHI-Training to MasterTrainers Accounting Software being developed.RURAL DIGITAL SERVICES-Citizen centric e-Governance project providing IT interface forGovernment services at the Village. 42 servicesplanned in first phase of the Revenue Departmentat Taluk such as Birth, Death, and IncomeCertificates. Currently 25 services provided.COMMERCIAL TAXES DEPARTMENT-Projectproposal submitted to Government forcomputerizing the remaining 22 checkposts. RFSon Windows 2000/Oracle 8i for 6 Actsimplemented in 140 Bangalore offices. BankCollections integrated. e-MAN being implementedall over NIC.SEG-SAN installed and operational withWeb, Mail and Database services. 2 MBPS LeasedLine established with NIC Hyderabad. WEBSERVICES-Additional 50 web sites developedtaking the count to 100. QMS-Training to all onQMS implementation. Mock audit, MR conductedperiodically. e-GRANTHALAYA in 10 more sites.

Kerala

All 14 district websites launched. DC suite moderncollectorate with data centre, VC, training, touchscreen, etc., was launched by Hon’ble CM. Fullyworkflow based Transport system with touchscreen and web portal launched in Ernakulam.Employment portal introduced transparency in theemployment exchange data and networked theemployers and employees. Civil Supplies nationalmodel initiated. Touch screen services in the area ofFile status in Collectorates, Grievance status,treasury pension details, regional transport officeservices, etc. Web services of blood donors, Haj,Tsunami, Malabar Mahotsavams , etc. Diseasemonitoring and surveillance systems portal. Webbased grievance launched in all districts. KerNIC -Kerala NIC Intranet portal automating admirationsservices G2E. 57 training programmes and 15update programmes.

Madhya Pradesh

Design and Development of comprehensive State-wide MIS covering the Schemes, water resources,inventory, personnel, etc., for PHED; Panch-lekhafor computerization of Panchayati Raj InstitutionsAccounts; MIS for Bank Recovery IncentiveScheme for Finance Department; Development andimplementation of web-based MIS for Directorate

of Small Savings and State Lotteries; web-basedmonitoring system ‘Farm Machinery Online’ for allthe Farm Machinery Training andTesting Institutesin the country; Election Results Monitoring Systemfor CEO; Geomatics-based application for PlanningRural Road Connectivity to Habitations (GeoApproach) under Prime Minister’s Gram SadakYojna for M.P. Rural Road Development Authority;Customization and deployment of E-Gram Suvidhain Dhar, Damoh and Mandla districts;implementation of Agmarknet in 31 additionalMandis (Phase III); development of Loans andShare capital Advances Recovery MonitoringSystem for Registrar (Cooperative Societies);setting-up of VC Network connecting DistrictHeadquarters .and Mantralaya, commissioning ofStorage Area Network (SAN) anddevelopment/hosting of over 50 web-sites on M.P.portal.

Maharashtra

Preparation of proposal and discussion withGovernment of Maharashtra for establishment ofOFC based WAN. Submission of proposal to RDDfor establishment of C&C Network of PanchayatSamitis as part of 11th Finance Commission reportimplementation. Design, development andimplementation of following web enabledapplications for the DGIPR, L&HD, Planning(EGS)Status Information Management system(http://mahasim.nic.in) for all departments.Computer and Communication Services and VCfacility to the Hon’ble President and PM during theirvisits to Mumbai.

Web registration and hosting of district websites onhttp://district.nic.in .Commissioning of online LandRecord Computerization programme in two tehsilseach of 35 districts . Implementation of ZillaParishad Accounting system. Support extended allCentral Projects.

Manipur

Land Records Computerization, Hosting of ExamResults of Class X and Class XII TreasuryComputerization, Implementation of VAHAN andSARATHI at Transport Data Entry of 7AISES,Central Projects: AGMARKNET, ICDS, TPP, BPLData Entry Support to Holding 14th Lok SabhaElection, Implementation of Payroll Value AddedTax, PMGSY, Daily Treasury Monitoring,Preparation of E-G Document for Manipur,

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Conducting DONER sponsored Training,Conducting Computer Training to the StateGovernment Employees and conducting CCConline examination.

Meghalaya

Design, development and launching of the Portals of Government of Meghalaya(www.meghalaya.nic.in), Election Department(www.ceomeghalaya.nic.in), State Cancer Society(www.scsm.nic.in), Agriculture Department(www.megagriculture.nic.in). Workshop for CitizenCentric Services, Transport Computerization, e-governance master plan, integrated MIS andSoftware application for PHED, Utilization of IT Toolsfor Senior officials of State Government.Completed compilation of BPL Census 2002,Habitation Survey, 7th AISES activities. Installationof 2 MBPS lease line. Preparation of SRS for PHEDproject. Setting up IT infrastructure for theCommercial Tax Department and Computerizationof Shillong Municipality Board. Computerization ofthe CM’s Secretariat. Commissioning of DRDAPortal.

Computerization of the Shillong and Tura MunicipalBoard, e-Billing for the Electricity Board, ValueAdded Tax for Sale Taxes Department integratedMIS for PHE Department, Meghalaya PublicService Commission. Implementation of VAHANand SARATHI.CIC activities .

Mizoram

Online issue of Driving License implemented atDTO Aizawl, Vehicle database integrated withwebsite for public consumption, Online filling ofFORM 6 (request for name insertion) functionalitymodules integrated with http://ceomizoram.nic.in,developed LEILUNG mutation and RoR module,coordinated 2 days CIC content creation workshopat Aizawl sponsored by DIT, establishment of LANat CM Secretariat Aizawl, 2mbps leased circuitbetween Aizawl - New Delhi installed and 5 daysDoNER sponsored training conducted at Aizawl.

Nagaland

State E-governance Plan approved by the Hon’bleCM of Nagaland (The chairman of IT Council); 8(eight) more Departmental website developed andlaunched; 24 hours telecommunicating services ismade operational; Videoconferencing facility(SCPC-DAMA -Network) at CM's Official residence

Kohima, Nagaland House New Delhi and 9 districtout of 11 districts of Nagaland installed andinaugurated; Dissemination of Examination resultsand transmission of daily reports of SBI arefacilitated through CICs; computer trainingimparted to about 600 Secretariat staffs underMass Skill up-gradation programme; organizedDONER training in coordination with NICSI where26 Officials were trained; Web-based village profilefor Agriculture department developed and hosted.

Orissa

E-Governance Projects implemented in Orissa areBhulekh (Land Records Computerization) for 171tehsils of 30 Districts, e-Bhulekh online viewing andprinting of ROR of any tehsil of the state, LandRegistration (ORIS) implemented in 12 districts,treasury computerization for 36 Treasuries, Priasoftand ruralsoft implemented in all the 314 blocks ofOrissa, Sarathi implemented for Bhubaneswar RTOoffice, CCR Information system developed andimplemented for GA department, Intranet basedapplication developed for Assembly and Lok SabhaElection, Software for Election management forsimultaneous Election, Web based MIS for Food ,Supply and Consumer Welfare, MIS on CDPO’sMPR under ICDS Scheme, Holding Tax Assessmentand Collection automation system, Birth and DeathRegistration System, Plan Expenditure MonitoringSystem, Web based MIS for Industry Department,Water and Sewerage billing fully computerized forthe Bhubaneswar, Teachers Provident FundComputerization, Budget Computerization, e-Grama implemented in 22 blocks of Ganjamdistrict, list of Business Information System,Computerized Filing Counter, Caselaw InformationRetrieval System, Passport Computerization

Punjab

Property Registration Information System Module(PRISM 4.0) got ISO certification and implementedat 110 sites; Integrated Treasuries InformationSystem (ITISP) has been implemented at allDistricts and Sub Treasuries; Single User-friendlyWindow Disposal Help line for Applicants(SUWIDHA 2.0) implemented in all districts; Launchof SUWIDHA Back-end Services (SUBS) projectwith 9 applications in districts; Social SecurityInformation System (SSIS) has been implementedin all districts; Websites of 6 districts hosted; E-mailServer launched on NIC e-mail Server having 800accounts; Release of Office Automation System

(OAS) CD containing 6 generic modulesimplemented in 7 sites; AGMARKNET Projectimplemented in all 145 Mandis; SARTHI andVAHAN for Transport Sector implemented at 3sites.

Rajasthan

An Intranet has been established in the departmentof Medical, Health and Family Welfare to facilitatemonitoring of various health programs connectingthe State Headquarter of the department to thefield level units including CMHO and Deputy.CMHO. IT infrastructure has been created up-toDeputy. CMHO level. Web enabled monitoringsystems are implemented for information flow. Aweb site of the department has been created.Local area network has been established at theState Headquarter of the department. Internetbased online systems for Election Managementhas been created for all the activities of Elections.Project of digitization of art objects ‘NATRAJ’ hasbeen initiated in all the museums of the state.Turnkey project for computerization of EmploymentExchanges is taken up initially at Jaipur. Dataprocessing for 7th AIES is near completion. ‘E-Zila’integrated system for computerization ofCollectorates has been implemented in some ofthe districts. Daily information of Assemblyquestions has been put on the assembly web site.Data depository system has been implemented inall the district treasuries covering DDOs in the cityarea. Land records have been made available onthe web. LRC system has been used to distributecopies of Jamabandi to the landowners. Web sitesof various government departments and agencieshave been designed and hosted. NIC has extendedNICNET/Internet connections to various users inthe state. An application package called ‘Carisma’has been developed to address the need offacilitation centers at village level for people. NIChas extended its facilities at state level and in all thedistricts for Prashasan Aapke Dwar , a specialcampaign of the state government.

Sikkim

The Treasury computerization has been extended toworks computerization, The Registration project isbeing implemented in South District. GPFcomputerization for Government employees ;LOAN information system for Finance Department;Web-based PIS for Government of Sikkim;Employment Card information system; RevenueManagement System - Transport Department;

Pension software has been developed andimplemented in the respective Departments. TheVC installation at Raj Bhavan completed.Implementation of the Digital Signature in NICSikkim, has received request from StateGovernment for the same. VAT implementation forthe IT&CT department. A web based applicationSikkim Market Price Information System for use offarmers at www.sikkim.nic.in/smpis.

Tripura

Developed, deployed and integratedcomprehensive Hospital Management System forHealthcare sector. Comprehensive Energy BillingSystem - the Revenue Management System hasbeen designed, developed, deployed andintegrated for Power Sector. E-Suvidha- A workflowbased comprehensive solution for SDM officestargeting 22 citizen centric services. Village leveldatabases created and deployed for decisionsupport and macro level resource based planning atthe block level. Deployed Land Records applicationsoftware Jami Version 3 at Revenue Circle level in3(three) Revenue Circles in West and South TripuraDistrict. 7th All India School Education Survey(AISES) project- completed.

Software Development Centre, Pune

Integrated web based application comprising of 32modules for Department of Explosives for their HQat Nagpur, 5 Circle Offices and 13 Sub-circle officesall over the Country, Indian Ocean ComputerizedInformation System: The web portal of IOMOU hasInformation about Restricted Area of IOCIS. IOCISapplication is used by 20 member countries of theIOMOU for online entering of ship survey data andretrieval of the same, Treasuries, EmploymentExchanges (National level Workshops were held forthese projects in Pune. The Development isunderway using the State of the art SDLC toolsuite) , Consultancy to e-governance project ofMercantile Marine, Department (MMD) and CensorBoard of Film Certification (CBFC).

Management of Taluka Seed Farm, MIS forAgropolyclinic and Farmers Training MonitoringSystem, Model project plan and Saturation Indexfor Watershed Project, Cropwatch for soil sowingstatus, KOSHWAHINI database containingapproximately 1 crore vouchers and challans isupdated daily by all 300 Subtreasuries andTreasuries, gives ecision support queries forFinance Department authorities. This is appreciated

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by the Finance Minister, Government of Meghalayain his budget speech, the Chairman 12th FinanceCommission and many other Finance Secretariesfrom other states and State Government. MonthlyPension Payment system for 4 lakh pensioners andMillennium Corporation Project for new 10 modelscompleted and released. Developed web basedsystem for Stock Accounting and Search Parts ofHeavy Earth Moving Machines. Developed webbased Information System for Tribe/Case CertificateVerification (LAMP Architecture). Completeddevelopment of Sevaarth package, a web-basedsystem for Integrated Personnel

Information and Payroll catering to comprehensiverequirements of Government of Maharashtra. CaseInformation System is developed on complete opensource technology platform of LAMP (Linux,Apache, MySQL and PHP) resulting in saving ofhuge money to the exchequer. The system isoperational in several courts of Maharashtra. CIS isbeneficial to the society, Litigants, Lawyers andJudicial Administration.

Tamilnadu

NICNET facilities were utilized after Tsunami in allthe coastal districts of TN for transmitting urgentcommunications between various offices. Awebsite was hosted for posting details on reliefoperations, commenced the implementation ofsystems for Village Panchayats, workflow basedTreasury system implemented at Karur and TheniDistrict Treasuries, commenced regular activities atthe newly established Madurai Bench of High Courtof Madras, Intranet based systems implementedfor various departments such as Agriculture,Revenue, Education, Backward Classes, Prohibitionand Excise and others, Touch Screen Kiosk basedsystems installed in 97 more taluks under TamilNilam project. Projects Monitoring System wasdeveloped and implemented for CPWD, Census2001 data of Tamilnadu was hosted on Internet fordisseminating village level data and for generatingdynamic maps. Systems requirements study wereconducted for many departments such asAgriculture, Municipal Administration and WaterSupply, Energy, Rural Development and others andRack and SAN Servers installed at NIC Chennai.

Uttar Pradesh

Treasury Computerization – ITSANIC 5.0(Integrated Treasury System Application of NIC) gotthe ISO Certification; Pilot implementation of Lok

Vahini project has been carried out at DistrictSitapur. The project aims at redressing the publicgrievances in the district; The ‘PRERNA’ softwarewas designed and developed for all kind of propertyregistration in the Land Registry Department, pilotimplementation running successfully at the SROOffices in Lucknow. Online counseling of UPTechnical University was carried out for admissionto various engineering and management Institutesof the state. In which 50,000 candidates in 180institutes participated; The ‘BHULEKH’ softwarewas restructured and reengineered forimplementation in all the 305 Tehsils, computerizedkhataunis are being generated and farmers aregetting computerized ROR copies from the TehsilComputer Centres. The software for onlinemutation has also been developed and is under trialrun; ‘e-Patrawali Pranali’ - A web based softwaredeveloped for File and Reference/Letter monitoringsystem, the State Government has issued a GOand directed implementation of the software in allthe departments; A web based solution forFortnightly Crime Report for U.P. PoliceDepartment, this consists of about 70 differentforms that are filled at the district level and theconsolidated reports are generated at the statelevel for analysis. In addition software wasdeveloped for Automation of Lok Ayukta office,Panchayati Raj Scheme Monitoring, advocategenerals Office, Sachivalaya Administration. NIC-UP has also been declared as the nodalimplementation agency for State Wide AreaNetwork in UP (UP SWAN) by the StateGovernment

Uttaranchal

Computerization of Sub-Registrar, Treasuries,Transport, CM Letter Monitoring, PensionManagement, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Lokayukta,Societies, Forest Land, MPR RD, High Court,Sankhiki Patrika, BPL Survey, PanchayatInformation System, Group InsuranceManagement System, Budget Directorate,Election, Health-CNAA, E-payroll of StateGovernment, Seventh All India School EducationSurvey Uttaranchal Government Orders on theWeb, Twenty Point Programme, Board Results onWebsite, Check Posts, Ruralsoft 2000, Mandis ofUttaranchal, Employment Exchange,Videoconferencing set-up at State Headquarters,High Court and Districts , Networking ofSecretariat, Benchmarking of Hardware, E-mail and

Internet to Government Officials, trainings toGovernment Departments, Websites of Districts,Departments such as Finance, Chief ElectoralOfficer, Transport, Arhkumbh, Rajbhawan, Lokayuk,Uttaranchal High Court, Registrar Societies andManaging Web Server

West Bengal

The pilot projects on BANGLAR BHUMI (LandRecords Computerization in West Bengal) andCORD (Computerization of Registration ofDocuments) under the Citizen Centric Servicesinitiated by the Department of InformationTechnology were implemented by the NIC atHoogly districts. The Smart Card based Registration(VAHAN) and Driving License (SARTAHI) was madeoperational at the Public Vehicles Department fromOctober 2004. VAHAN is also operational at 24Paraganas (South). The system for Provident Fundfor Landless Laborers (PROFLAL) wasimplemented in all blocks in Bankura and will be replicated in all 341 blocks in West Bengal. A website on Missing Persons (http://kolkata.wb.nic.in/missing) is used by thePolice Stations throughout the State. The e-Government of West Bengal has awarded the totalcomputerization of the Agriculture Department tothe NIC in October 2004. The work is likely to becompleted by the end of December 2005.

A website on missing vehicles will be launched inFebruary 2005 to track down missing vehicles inthe State. The software is in completed and iscollaboration between the West Bengal Police andthe Transport Department.

Websites of State Central Library, Governor, StateHuman Rights Commission, Agriculture Marketing,Administrative Training Institute, Howrah Bridge,Director General of Commercial Intelligence,Central Public Works Department, Eastern Region,

Technical Education and Training Department andCentral Ground Water Board, Eastern Region weredeveloped and hosted.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Implemented Immigration Control system atAirport and hosted websites of the Departmentsviz. Agriculture, Civil supplies, Public works,Election, and finally Tsunami effects. EstablishedVideoconference between secretariat andAndaman Bhavan and Nicobar Deputycommissioner’s office through ISDN lines.Established leased line connectivity between RajNiwas and secretariat through NICNET. Supportedthe Administration through NICNET, to help in therelief related work. future Plans: implementation ofland records, transport information system, intranetamong Departments., SWAN for the administrationinterconnecting of all islands and payment of billsthrough e-Seva counters.

Chandigarh

SAMPARK (Citizen centric) centers, connected withData Center, have been started and providing 11services of 7 departments from 8AM to 8PM withProvision of online payments through Paymentgateway on official website http://chandigarh.nic.in.LAN extended further in additional deluxe building,additional town hall building and CTU Depots.Network hub established in the unit connecting NICoffices, major Chandigarh Administration offices forAdministration Intranet. VC Studio has also beenestablished in the unit. Data centre has beenestablished with rack servers configured inclustered environment with 1 Terabyte of state ofart SAN. Various National level projects like E-Granthalaya for Library Automation, AISES, AIEEE,SCDRC, CAT, Government Tenders Portal, etc. havebeen successfully implemented. Maintainingaround 30 websites.

Lakshadweep

Web-enabled Plan monitoring information systemdeveloped and implemented for the U.T. ofLakshadweep; Web-enabled registrationinformation system developed and implementedfor MPEDA. Pension processing informationsystem developed and implemented forLakshadweep Administration; GPF ManagementSystem developed and implemented in the office ofthe PAO Lakshadweep. The employee informationsystem developed for the Lakshadweepadministration and details of all the employees

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available. The Electoral roll for Lakshadweep has been revised and printed and CD published as per ECI guidelines. Designed, developed and hosted CEO lakshadweep.nic.in andindianseafoodfair.nic.in.

Pondicherry

The Land Records Information System has beenenhanced with biometric authentication. Townsurvey information system for land holdings inurban areas has been developed. Software forissue of Permanent Caste certificate by revenuedepartment has been developed. Sarathi softwarehas been implemented for issue of Learner Licenseand Driving License with Biometric authenticationand Web cam. A GIS based dynamic web enabledsystem has been developed for monitoring ofanimal diseases through SAHAS (System forAnimal Health and Safety) in open source domain.

National Informatics Centre Services

Incorporated (NICSI)

National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated(NICSI) was set up under Section 25 of TheCompanies Act, 1956, mainly to promote utilizationof IT, Computer Communication Network,Informatics Developments of Services,Technologies, Supplementing Developments byNIC, promote value added Computer andComputer Communication Services, etc. ManyCentral and State Government Departments haveretained NICSI as their Total IT Solution Provider.Some of the major projects have beenimplemented/under implementations are: CICs inthe NE and J&K, E-Governance Rollout projects,GRAMSAT-Block level networking in Orissa,

Headstart project for Government of M.P. P.R andPHED Computerization in Various States, Vice-Chancellor in the States of Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan Nagaland, etc. Computerization ofSchools in Orissa. Computerization of Treasury andP.R including VSATs at Block in Chattisgarh. DCSuite project for Palakkad in Kerala.Computerization of Department of Revenue,Gujarat. Computerization of Police HQs of Districtsof U.P. Computerization of Education Project, Bihar.Computerization of Treasuries of U.P. PassportScanning Project of MEA. Computerization of FCI.Immigration Computerization for BoI, MHA.Computerization of Health Services in Rajasthan.

Awards

During the year, NIC received the following awards • e-Asia award for E-Suvidha and project on-line

filing/processing of applications for import/exportlicenses from AFACT in Taiwan.

• AGMARKNET project was awarded CSI-TCSSpecial Mention award under Best IT Usagecategory.

• Special Achievement in GIS award at 24th ESRIAnnual User Conference in San Diego, California.

• GOLDEN ICON AWARD for “the solution topublish the Examination Result on the Internet”and DACNET Project received BRONZE ICONAWARD at 8th National Conference 2005 forexemplary initiatives in e-Governance.

• The Director General, NIC has been awardedVASVIK (Vividhlaxi Audyogik Samsodhan VikasKendra) Award 2001 for excellence in ICT andSKOCH CHALLENGER AWARD 2005 for e-Governance Applications.

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Public Sector UnitsSemiconductor Complex Limited (SCL)

Semiconductor Complex Limited (SCL) is a wellknown chip design, development andmanufacturing company in India under theDepartment of Information Technology.Headquartered at Mohali (near Chandigarh), SCLhas an integrated facility comprising class 10, six (6)inch wafer fabrication facility, VLSI design anddevelopment, test & assembly, quality assuranceand reliability as well as board/system levelassembly facility. Major upgradation in the recentpast has been the establishment of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) manufacturingfacility. The company has been designated as theNational facility for MEMS under the NationalProgramme on Smart Materials (NPSM) of theGovernment of India. SCL has identified nichemarket segments for its chip business such asApplication Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) forstrategic and other market segments andApplication Specific Standard Products (ASSPs) forpower management and metering as also MEMSfor various applications such as biomedical,automotive and strategic sector. In thesystem/board level segment, focus is mainly on thetelecom systems, electronic energy meters as wellas specialized professional boards for industrialmarkets. The company derives its strength from itsin-house technological developments over theyears as well as from its professional andexperienced human capital.

Achievements

Wafer Fabrication

The wafer fabrication activities mainly involvedmanufacture of Application Specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs) and development/engineering of

products for various customers. Characterization ofprocesses as well as integration with highperformance process modules was undertaken tomake these versatile enough to offer wafer foundryservices to overseas customer(s) meetinginternational quality standards.

Mems Fabrication

In the area of MEMS, the company developedprototypes for a pressure sensors for differentapplications including that for tyre pressuremeasurement sensor for which commercialsupplies were commenced. Major on-going MEMSprojects include temperature, pressure, humiditysensors and transmitter module for IndiaMeteorological Department (IMD) and RF patchantenna. Future plans include development of hi-end MEMS devices and night vision devicesincluding uncooled Focal Plane Arrays (UFPAs).

Board/System Level Assembly

The main systems level activity during the yearincluded manufacture of electronic energy meterswhich were supplied to several State ElectricityBoards. In keeping with the market trend, thecompany is concentrating its efforts towardsdevelopment of hi-end meters including the smartcard based pre-paid energy meters. In the telecomsystems, the company continued its focus onnewer telecom equipment namely family ofsynchronous transport module equipment andefforts are underway to improve revenues from thissegment through strategic tie-up with well-knownIndian telecom manufacturers.

Research & Development

The R&D activities have formed an integral part ofcompany’s operations since incorporation and are

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carried out in accordance with R&D road mapevolved from time to time. Steered by an AdvisoryCommittee comprising experts in the area from theindustry, R&D establishments as well as academia,the R&D activities are focused on development ofprocess technologies and products in the identifiedniche market segments. Major highlights of theR&D activities during the year are as under:

VLSI Design

In the area of VLSI design, prototype of theproducts such as SoftDAS, 12 Bit DAC weredelivered to the customers. Prototype of anotherproduct namely FFT processor was testedsuccessfully and delivered to the customer. IP corefor microcontroller was successfully developed asalso the flight worthy FM clock driver ASIC. Thenew designs taken up during the year includedRead Out IC (ROIC), a multi-institutional projectlaunched by the office of Principal Scientific Adviserto the Government of India, Transmitter Module forIndia Meteorological Department (IMD), IP coreslike ROM, DSP processor, SD DAC and DLL. On thedesign technology front, the 0.8mm cell librarydevelopment was further enhanced by way ofaddition of new cells of higher complexity such asFVR, SRAM, DPRAM, Multiplexer, etc., as alsoseveral analog cells.

VLSI Design Services

The company also embarked upon design servicesduring the year. An MOU was signed with anoverseas company for design services by SCLunder which two products were completed whiletwo more are in progress. More products areenvisaged to follow under the MOU. The companyexpects the design services business segment togrow significantly in the near future.

VLSI Technology Development

Capability enhancement through development ofnewer technologies/variants of existingtechnologies has been the main focus of the VLSItechnology development activities. In addition tocore R&D activities, the company also undertakesdevelopment of specialized technologies meetingspecific requirements of the customers. The maintechnology development activities during the yearincluded progressing further the development of1.2mm BHCMOS process(80V & 5V med b) and0.8mm BHCMOS process (5V, high b and 24V, medb), development of prototype of 12K TDI imager and

frame transfer imager for imaging applications.Similarly, the RAD HARD technology developmentwas progressed further and prototype productfabrication commenced. Development work of0.8mm EEPROM technology progressed andfabrication of PEV/Short loop runs was underprogress.

System/Sub-System Development

The systems development mainly includeddevelopment of newer versions of EEMs,engineering and testing of telecom systems,development of professional boards. In the area ofelectronic energy meters(EEMs) design activities inrespect of single/three phase multifeature EEMs,pre-paid EEMs and three phase CT operated EEMwere completed and upon prototype validationtransferred to production. Also, development ofspecialized professional boards was progressedfurther with completion of design activities andprototype validation. As part of the systemdevelopment activity, application and engineeringincluding testing and modification of newertelecom products such as STM-1 and Wi-fiequipment for Internet/LAN access wasundertaken.

Information Technology Sevices (ITS)

In the area of Information Technology, the companyoffered IT solutions to Government and otheragencies as part of their e-governance andbusiness process automation initiatives. Effortswere continued to secure IT projects includingthose based on smart cards in partnership withstrategic allies. The company also offered hi-endeducation courses in the area of VLSI design andreal time embedded design. The intake of studentswas almost doubled during the year and plans areafoot to expand this education programme further.

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Promotional MattersInternational Co-operation

and Bilateral Trade

The Department is regularly interacting with theforeign governments and agencies and our IndianMission abroad for bilateral cooperation in the ITsector.

During the year 2004-05, focus of activities wasprimarily on activating the MOUs and thearrangements agreed upon in past with a view toundertaking joint ventures, sharing of expertise anddeveloping a common approach towards emergingissues.

MOUs for bilateral cooperation were signed withTanzania, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

As a follow up action on the Hyderabad declarationadopted at 2nd Asian IT Ministers Summit held inJanuary 2004, a high level team from Bahrainvisited India who were assisted in preparations forthe 3rd Summit to be held at Bahrain. The eventhad led to a consensus of regional approach ofcooperation and sharing of best practices in ITwithin the region so as to develop enduringpartnership and collaborations in this field.

The Kofi Annan India Ghana Centre of Excellencefor Information Technology set up with the technicaland financial assistance from India becameoperational during the year and the first batch ofstudents is being trained.

The Ebene Cyber City being set up in Mauritiuswith the assistance of the Government of India wasalso completed during the year. The Ebene CyberCity is likely to be inaugurated very shortly.

With a view to capacity building of IT infrastructurein other developing nations, an initiative was takento set up IT centres in Tashkent, Uzbekistan andDushanbe, Tajikistan, at an estimated cost of Rs. 3crore each. The land, building and the operationalcosts are to be borne by the respective countrieswhereas the technical infrastructure, hardware,course curricula and training of the trainers wouldbe undertaken by the Indian side during the project.The projects are expected to be completed in oneyear time.

Indian Government has also agreed to set up two e-learning centres, one at Yangon and other areMandlay in Myanmar. It is also proposed to train 50Myanmar officials of various GovernmentDepartments in e-governance projects in India. Thetotal estimated cost of these projects would beUS$ 3 million to be provided as a grant-in-aid fromIndia. The projects are likely to commence duringthis year.

Setting up of an IT Centre in Laos was completedthis year. The setting up of any Advance ResourceCentre in Vietnam is in progress. A feasibility reportto network important IT institutions of Vietnam hasbeen prepared based on which project is beingundertaken.

With the increasing recognition of India’scapabilities in the IT sector, several developingcountries are approaching the Indian Governmentseeking technical assistance for developing ITinfrastructure networking, e-governance system,etc., within their Governments. Experts weredeputed to Ivory Coast, Vietnam and Bhutan, fordevising and designing of the infrastructure,purchase of necessary hardware and peripherals if

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so warranted, setting up and commissioning of theequipment besides training of the manpower.Similar requests from countries like Madagascar,Tanzania, etc. are in progress. Joint projects arealso being undertaken with the EU, France, etc., todevelop synergies in areas where complementaryskills exist.

ELITEX

The Department organizes Electronics &Information Technology Exposition (ELITEX), anannual exhibition and seminar event to showcasetechnologies, products and services developedunder the aegis of the Department of InformationTechnology. ELITEX’ 2004 was held on 26 – 27 April2004 at New Delhi. The theme of ELITEX’ 2004was ‘Technology Vision : India in 2010’. This eventprovided an opportunity for close interactionbetween academia, R&D institutions andindustries. Three technologies developed by C-DACand C-MET were transferred to industries forcommercialization and 16 new products andtechnologies were released during the Exposition.

Lectures on Topics of Current Interest in IT

The Department of Information Technology hasinitiated a series on lectures on current topics ofinterests in IT sector by eminent experts. During2004, the following lectures were arranged:Bridging Knowledge and Innovation Divide : withinand among communities, and formal and informalscience by Prof. Anil K.Gupta, IIM Ahmedabad;Shared Services in Government by Shri SteveBittinger, Gartner; Architectural Planning and RiskAssessment through e-Governnance forgovernments, large corporations and non-governmental organizations by Shri James N.

Richhman, Intel Corporation; Highlights on ProductReliability and Mfg Research by Dr. Bharat Thakkar,Adjunct Associate Professor, Illinois Institute ofTechnology, Chicago, Illinois,USA; Design Patternsin Software Engineering by Prof.V.K.Vaishnavi,Fellow of IEEE; Digital Signal Processing : Road toFuture by Prof.Sanjit K.Mitra, University ofCalifornia; Cable Modems Technology and Last MileAccess Solutions by Dr.Amitava Dutta-Roy, FellowIEEE, Fellow IEE - Consultant, Writer and Instructoron Data Communication.

Computer Literacy Excellence Awards

The Department has launched a scheme forawarding at National and State levels, the bestschool in Computer Literacy to promote excellenceand learning of IT at the school level. SecondComputer Literacy Excellence Awards for 2003 to50 Schools in various States and 6 National Awardswere presented by His Excellency President ofIndia on August 4, 2004. The Third ComputerLiteracy Excellence Awards for schools for 2004has been announced.

Support to Conferences / Seminars

Financial support is being extended to conductNational and International level Conferences in thearea of Electronics, Communication andInformation Technology and related fields in India.During the year 2004-05, a total number of 104proposals were received. The scheme has beenrevisited to broaden its coverage, widen scope ofGIA support focusing on latest technology trends.Brochure containing guidelines of the scheme andproforma for seeking Grant-in-Aid support has alsobeen posted on the DIT website.

Office Automation

Office Automation Cell continued to provide annualmaintenance of computers, printers, LAN, Servers,databases, attendance recording system, laptop,etc.; installation of systems; Network Support forlotus notes, Internet, etc., and providing advice onspecifications with regard to purchase of technicalstores, etc.

Public / Staff Grievances Redress

A total of 96 cases relating to public / staffgrievances were received during the year, out ofwhich 83 cases were settled / disposed off.

Electronics Information and

Planning Journal

The monthly techno-economic journal ‘ElectronicsInformation and Planning’ published by theDepartment of Information Technology is in its 32ndyear of publication. The journal has a widereadership among the Industry and Users. Itscoverage includes all aspects of promotion ofelectronics, including technology development,applications, policies and data.

During the year, the journal covered in-depthanalysis reports/articles by professional on thelatest technologies in electronics, such as,Information and Communication Technologies forEnabling a Digital Unite, Nanotechnology, India: AnEmerging Global VLSI Design Destination, Global ITOutsourcing, Molecular Computation, ElectronicData Interchange, etc. In addition, statistics onIndian Electronics and IT Industry Production,Foreign Collaborations and Technologies/Productsdevelop through support from the Department ofInformation Technology were also covered in thejournal.

To streamline the distribution and accountingsystem, a computerised data base for thesubscriber is being maintained.

The quality of the journal, both in outlook and itscontents has witnessed positive changes and hasbeen appreciated by all.

Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in

Information Technology

To recognize the innovation, which has the potentialto make a significant impact on nationaldevelopment or bring fame to the country, the

Department of Information Technology institutedan award for innovation in IT in the name of late ShriDewang Mehta. The concept behind the award is toencourage innovations in an industry, which thriveson brilliance.

Nominations for the Award for 2003, nominationswere invited from the institutions such as IITs,IIITs, IIMs, NASSCOM, MAIT, STPI, C-DAC andother premier R&D organizations, Heads of majoreducational institutions in IT as well as majorsoftware units. The Department received 43nominations for the Dewang Mehta Award forinnovation in IT - 2003.

Dr. Sugata Mitra of Centre for Research in CognitiveSystems, NIIT was selected for the Dewang MehtaAward for Innovation in Information Technology for2003. His development of ‘Hole in the wall’concept enables children to learn to use computerson their own irrespective of who or where they are.This will help in spreading IT to Masses. About50,000 poor children in India, Cambodia, Egypt andSouth Africa use computers because of thisfinding. ). The award distribution function is beingorganized on April 12, 2005.

Awards for Excellence in Electronics

In the present liberalized economic scenario, it isonly by excellence of products and service that wecan hope to emerge as global players. To encourageand publicize the achievements of leaders in thefield of electronics, the Department had instituted ascheme of Awards of Excellence in differentsectors of electronics. The Award for the year 2002-03 were distributed on 16 September 2004 at afunction organised at Hotel Ashok, New Delhi. Itwas well attended by member industries ofIndustry Associations, such as, ELCINA, MAIT,NASSCOM, CETMA, IEEMA and TEMA. Thefollowing units were selected for the Award for2002-03 in various products sectors:

Electronics Industry Information System

The data pertaining to production, exports,approvals, foreign collaborations, manufacturersand product directory and other macro levelstatistics related to electronic industry aremaintained in an information system, called, ‘LIPSInformation System’ by the Data Bank andInformation Division (DBID) of the Department ofInformation Technology. The time-series (item-wise

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and unit-wise) production and export data isavailable since 1981. The manufacturer and productdirectory provides up-to date and reliableinformation and serves as a Buyer/Seller Guide. Itprovides manufacturer’s information such asaddress (both office/factory), telephone, telex, fax,gram, name and office of the executive, year ofestablishment, brand, manpower employed,sector, product range and export product range,etc. It also provides manufacturers and exportersfor a given product.

CD on Indian Electronics and IT Industry

The Data Bank and Information Division (DBID) ofthe Department of Information Technology broughtout latest edition of the CD to providecomprehensive information on Indian Electronicsand IT Industry.

The CD covers :• EIIS Package : An user-friendly package provides

information on Manufacturers Directory, ProductDirectory, Export Product Directory, Time-seriesProduction and Exports data, ForeignCollaboration, etc. Information can be retrievedon many keys such as Party, Item, Year, City,State, Collaborator, Country, etc.

• Guide to Electronics Industry : Covers policiesand infrastructural facilities that are relevant tothe electronics and IT sector besides otherinformation.

• Annual Reports of the Department for the last 4years

• IT Act 2000• Information on DIT and its organizations, etc.This CD was widely circulated and appreciated bythe industry and dignitaries from abroad.

IT in Parliament

During the year 2004, a number of ParliamentQuestion on various issues in InformationTechnology and electronics sectors like hardware,software production and exports, cyber crime, ITparks, promotion of IT software piracy, internet,websites hacking, computer education,International and bilateral trade, outsourcing, etc.,were answered in both the Houses of Parliament.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee onInformation Technology took evidence of thecommittee representatives of Department ofInformation Technology on Demand for Grants for2004-05. Discussed in detailed on selected

subjects like Software Technology Parks Schemes,Problems of Hardware and Software Industry andNational Informatics Center. The Committeepresented its 5th, 8th and 10th Report in theParliament. The Committee also undertook on thespot study tour to the organizations namely STPI-Chennai and Thiruvanthapuram, SAMEER-Chennai,ERTL-Thiruvanthapuram, C-DAC, Bangalore.

Use of Hindi and Requisite Technology

Development

During the year, the Committee of Parliament onOfficial Language visited the Software TechnologyParks of India at Navi Mumbai to oversee theprogress with regard to implementation of OLPolicy of the Government. The suggestions givenby the Committee are being implemented.

Winners

Consumer Electronics

Videocon International Ltd, Aurangabad - First

Digitech Industries Pvt. Ltd, Kolkata - Second

Computer and related products

Moser Baer India Ltd, New Delhi - First

Tata Infotech Limited, Mumbai - Second

Instrumentation and Industrial Electronics

Sahajanand Laser Technology, Ahmedabad - First

Shree Pacetronix Ltd, Indore - Second

Professional Electronics

Midas Communication Technologies Pvt Ltd, Chennai - First

Matrix Telecom Pvt. Ltd, Vadodara - Second

Electronics Components & Materials

Vishay Components India Pvt. Ltd, Pune - First

Cinch Connectors (I) Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore - Second

Computer Software

Patni Computer Systems Ltd, Mumbai - First

R&D in Electronics

Samtel Color Limited, Ghaziabad - First

Tejas Networks, Bangalore - Second

Human Resource Development in Electronics

DOEACC ‘O’ level - Information Technology center, MogriDOEACC ‘A’ level - UPTEC Computer Consultancy Ltd,

Allahabad

The scheme of National Awards for original bookson Electronics and IT in Hindi instituted by theDepartment is gaining popularity among varioussections of authors. During the year, 17 proposalswere received for the awards of which, five bookswere selected for the awards. The Hon’ble Minister

for Communication and Information Technologydistributed the awards at a function held inSeptember 2004.

MOUs for cooperation in the field of InformationTechnology were signed during the year inbilingual/trilingual form with countries like Austria,Kazakstan, South Africa, Tanzania, Uzbekistan andVenezuela.

Hindi fortnight was organized and messages fromthe Home Minister and the Cabinet Secretarytogether with an appeal from the Secretary,Department of Information Technology werecirculated to all officers and staff of the Departmenton Hindi Day i.e. September 14, 2004.

Subordinate offices of the Department were visitedto review the progressive use of Hindi and guidethem on implementation of various provisions ofOL Act/Rules.

108

109

Appendix -1

Electronics Production (Calendar Year) (Rs. Crore)

Item 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 *

1. Consumer Electronics 11,000 11,880 12,300 13,580 14,850 16,400

2. Industrial Electronics 3,750 3,970 4,480 5,400 5,980 7,550

3. Computers 2,500 3,350 3,520 4,180 6,600 8,680

4. Communication & Broadcast Eqpt. 4,000 4,450 4,450 4,800 5,150 4,500

5. Strategic Electronics 1,400 1,730 1,750 2,330 2,670 3,020

6. Components 5,100 5,500 5,650 6,510 7,450 8,650

Sub-Total 27,750 30,880 32,150 36,800 42,700 48,800

7. Software for Exports 16,000 27,000 34,000 44,000 55,000 75,000

8. Domestic Software 7,000 8,800 10,600 12,000 15,500 18,500

Total 50,750 66,680 76,750 92,800 113,200 142,300

* Estimated

110

Appendix -II

Electronics Production (Financial Year) (Rs. Crore)

Item 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05*

1. Consumer Electronics 11,200 11,950 12,700 13,800 15,200 16,800

2. Industrial Electronics 3,750 4,000 4,500 5,550 6,100 7,700

3. Computers 2,500 3,400 3,550 4,250 6,800 8,800

4. Communication & Broadcast Eqpt. 4,000 4,500 4,500 4,800 5,350 4,600

5. Strategic Electronics 1,450 1,750 1,800 2,500 2,750 3,050

6. Components 5,200 5,500 5,700 6,600 7,600 8,800

Sub-Total 28,100 31,100 32,750 37,500 43,800 49,750

7. Software for Exports 17,150 28,350 36,500 46,100 58,240 78,230

8. Domestic Software 7,200 9,400 10,874 13,400 16,250 19,630

Total 52,450 68,850 80,124 97,000 118,290 147,610

* Estimated

111

Appendix -III

Electronics Exports (Financial Year) (Rs. Crore)

Item 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05*

1. Consumer Electronics 300 648 700 750 825

2. Industrial Electronics 200 500 950 1,400 1,515

3. Computers 240 1,250 1,800 550 1,440

4. Communication & Broadcast Eqpt. 50 550 150 500 165

5. Strategic Electronics 10 - - - -

6. Components 600 1,840 2,200 2,400 3,755

Sub-Total 1,400 4,788 5,800 5,600 7,700 8,750

7. Computer Software 17,150 28,350 36,500 46,100 58,240 78,230

Total 18,550 33,138 42,300 51,700 65,940 86,980

* Estimated

112

Appendix –IV

Department of Information Technology Annual Plan 2005-06 (Rs. Crore)

SCHEME Budgetary Support

I. R&D PROGRAMMES

1 SAMEER 20.00

2 Microelctronics & Nanotech Development Programme 40.00

3 Technology Development Council 17.00

4 Convergence,Communication & Strategic Electronics 6.00

5 Components & Material Development Programme 10.00

6 C-DAC 60.00

7 Electronics in Health 14.00

8 Technology Development for Indian Languages 7.00

9 IPR Promotion Programme 1.00

10 E-Commerce & Info-Security 8.00

11 IT for Masses (Telemedicine) 8.00

12 Media Lab Asia 1.00

R&D Sub-Total 192.00

II. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

13 Vidya Vahini & Gyan Vahini Programme 1.50

14 STQC 42.00

15 STPI & EHTP 4.00

16 Digital DNA Park 10.00

17 Electronic Governance 300.00

18 IT Act / Certification & Network Security 7.00

19 Community Information Centres (CIC) 50.00

20 Setting-up of Megafab 10.00

Infrastructure Sub-Total 424.50

III. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

21 DOEACC 10.00

22 Manpower Development 20.00

23 Sp. Manpower for VLSI Design 13.00

HRD Sub-Total 43.00

IV. OTHERS

24 Headquarter (Secretariat & Bldg.) 9.70

25 Semiconductor Complex Ltd. 0.10

26 NIC 260.00

Grand Total 929.30

113

Appendix -V

Summary of Audit Observation

(Department of Information Technology)

(Para No. 4.1 of Report No. 5 of 2004) Scientific Departments

Failure to safeguard financial interests of Government resulting in non-recovery of Rs. 1.80 crore: The Department

of Information Technology (DIT) released Rs. 2 crore to M/s Usha (India) Limited, a Private Company, in March 1998

and March 1999 as refundable grants-in-aid against a corporate guarantee and personal guarantee of the Chairman

and Managing Director of the firm. The firm paid the first instalment of Rs. 20.00 lakh in June 2000 and did not pay

the subsequent instalments. Though the firm had been in default since September 2000, DIT failed to take timely

measures to protect its interests in invoking guarantees resulting in non-recovery of Rs. 1.80 crore.

Action Taken: ATN has been sent to the Office of the Principal Director of Audit for vetting.

(Para No. 4.2 of Report No. 5 of 2004) Scientific Departments

Non-recovery of Rs. 20.00 lakh: The Department of Information Technology released Rs. 30.00 lakh to M/s Padmini

Multimedia Limited as refundable grants-in-aid in March 1998 under a project. The amount was released against a

deed of guarantees executed by the firm on its letterhead which was not a legally enforceable document. DIT

terminated the projects in June 1999 as no progress was made and asked the firm to refund Rs. 30.00 lakh. The

firm refunded Rs. 10.00 lakh in June 2000 and furnished two post dated cheques for Rs. 10.00 lakh each in June

2001. One cheque which was deposited in the bank bounced due to insufficient funds. Though it constituted a

criminal offence, DIT did not take any legal action against the firm resulting in non-recovery of Rs. 20.00 lakh.

Action Taken: ATN has been sent to the Office of the Principal Director of Audit for vetting.

(Para No. 4.3 of Report No. 5 of 2004) Scientific Departments

Short claim of Rs. 38.67 lakh: The Department of Information Technology released financial assistance of Rs. 1.46

crore including loan of Rs. 1.06 crore to Marine and Communication Electronics Ltd. (MACE), Visakhapatnam, an

Andhra Pradesh Government Undertaking during the years 1987 to 1990 for undertaking four research and

development projects. MACE repaid only Rs. 29.86 lakh towards these loans between January 1990 and December

1991. Thereafter, MACE did not make any repayment in terms of the loan agreements. Subsequently, the company

was wounded up in April 1996 and an official liquidator was appointed for the company in February 2000. DIT, in June

2002, submitted a claim of Rs. 54.69 lakh including interest to the official liquidator. It was noticed in audit that while

submitting the claim, DIT failed to include the outstanding loan of Rs. 38.67 lakh out of Rs. 58.00 lakh sanctioned in

November 1998 to MACE. In reply to an audit query, DIT stated in September 2003 that it was advanced by another

division of DIT for which the records was not traceable. The reply indicates the absence of effective system of

monitoring and control over the loans advanced by DIT, which adversely affects the financial interest of

Government. DIT has yet to take action to approach the official liquidator to include the amount in the dues

recoverable from MACE (October 2003).

Action Taken: ATN has been sent to the Office of the Principal Director of Audit for vetting.

114

Appendix -VI

EMPLOYEES STRUCTURE (TOTAL AND SC/ST) As on 01.01.2005

(Department of Information Technology including its Attached & Subordinate Offices)

Group/ Permanent / Total No. of SC % age of Total ST % age of Total

Class Temporary Employee Employees Employees

GROUP A Permanent

(i) Other than lowest rung of Class – I 2121 149 7.02% 45 2.12%

(ii) Lowest rung of Class - I 703 32 4.55% 23 3.27%

Temporary

(i) Other than lowest rung of Class – I - - - - -

(ii) Lowest rung of Class I 3 - - - -

GROUP B Permanent 413 47 11.38% 24 5.81%

Gazetted Temporary 5 - - - -

GROUP B Permanent 506 81 16% 23 4.54%

(Non Gazetted)Temporary 261 4 1.53% 9 3.44%

GROUP C Permanent 669 160 23.91% 41 6.12%

Temporary 20 5 25% 2 10.00%

GROUP D Permanent 316 128 40.50% 16 5.06%

(Excl. Temporary 26 11 42.30% 3 11.53%

Sweeper

& Farash)

Sweeper Permanent 52 48 92.30% 2 3.84%

Temporary 4 4 100% 1 25.00%

Farash Permanent 20 12 60% - -

Temporary 16 4 25% 1 6.25%

TOTAL 5135 685 13.33% 190 3.70%