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If a poll is taken globally amongst tourists with an eye for beautiful places, chances are that Kashmir valley would feature among the top three destinations. The Swiss Alps are no doubt scenically beautiful, but even their structured formation can be no match for the rugged and scenic beauty of Sonmarg, or for that matter, the horseback terrain from Pahalgam to Chandanwadi. However, notwithstanding the beauty and grandeur of Kashmir, its disturbed past and a tense uncertain present even now, has caused one of modern Indias biggest ever heartburns.

Whatever the separatist propaganda might say, traditionally, Kashmir has never been an island distinct from the rest of the country. Its very origin is steeped in the composite mythology of the land as expounded in the Nilmat Puran. For aeons Kashmir has been inextricably intertwined spiritually with the rest of India, or Bharatvarsha as it was known, marking the northern outpost of its reaches as exemplified in the eighth century by the extent of Shankaracharyas religious expanse. Even today, Shankaracharya Hill, a majestic mound overlooking the capital Srinagar, marks the site of Shankaracharyas stay in Kashmir and is a standing testimony to Kashmirs inseparable bond with India.

Kalhans masterpieces on Kashmir celebrates this spiritual bonding Kashmir always enjoyed with Bharatvarsha. True, the settling of majority Muslim population in the state altered the demographic contour of the state, but historically it never caused inter-religious rifts. Instead, what developed was one of the finest traditions of the Sufiyana culture ever seen in Indiaone philosophy that even got a unique identity called Kashmiriyat. Unfortunately, today the voices of Kalhan or Kashmiriyat have been deafened by the noises of Kalashnikovs and AK-56s. The Sufi tradition of enlightened Islam has mostly been replaced by a hardliner stand, while the Hindus have been unfortunately tagged as refugees in their own country.

Setting aside ideology and tradition, that can be brushed off as subjective banter, let us focus on tangible economics of current times to counter the polemics of our egalitarian naysayers. Is Kashmir the impoverished, neglected stepchild of an authoritarian state? Is India guilty of not providing adequate funds for its development? The answer is broadly in the negative, though taking a more micro-look on the e-gov front, the answer would be more positive. But then again, one can argue that e-gov is a corollary of administrative initiatives only, and despite enough incentives on that front, the state has not progressed much, thanks to a deadly cocktail of politics and separatism.

Whenever asked why e-gov or general administration is not progressing in the state, the excuse given is the general apathy of the Center. But in a published article, HT Editor Vir Sanghvi refutes the argument. Bihar gets per capita central assistance of Rs 876 per year. Kashmir gets over ten times more: Rs 9,754 per year. While in Bihar and other states, this assistance is mainly in the forms of loans to the state, in Kashmir 90% is an outright grant. Kashmirs entire Five Year Plan expenditure is met by the Indian taxpayer. In addition, New Delhi keeps throwing more and more money at the state: in 2004, the prime minister gave Kashmir another $5 bn for development. Kashmiris are happy to take money and special rights but they argue that India has been unfair to them.

Driving From the Top
Actually, its a case of strange administrative ennui that prevents even e-gov initiatives from seeing the light of day. The scene is changing a bit, however small it might be. Jahangir Hashmi, under secretary, IT, Jammu & Kashmir, believes that despite initial bureaucratic resistance, things have started changing a bit. The IT department has now even inaugurated its implementing arm called the J&K e-Governance Agency (JaKeGA), to take care of all the projects initiated by the state. While all states have an IT nodal body, the very fact it took so long for the state to do so is a clear indication of how the administration was looking at the overall picture till now. However, with a young dynamic CM now at the helm and with administrators like Hashmi around, things have started moving.

JaKeGA has an empowered board of governors, headed by the state chief secretary. Modeled on similar agencies working in many other states, JaKeGA has been registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act on January 14, 2009. This is supposed to provide the agency with the much needed flexibility to implement IT-related projects throughout the state and to receive grants directly from the Government of India and other donor agencies. Free of time-consuming procedures, JaKeGA shall also take the single point responsibility for procuring all types of IT resources and services like hardware, software, power, printing and networking peripherals for government agencies. This will help streamline the IT related activities of all departments and save time and money by providing a single point mechanism for design, development, procurement, and training.

JaKeGA shall also have the mandate to create permanent, temporary or project-based positions that shall help boost the employment prospects of thousands of IT professionals in the state. JaKeGA shall also take on priority the encadrement of all IT professionals who are already working in various government departments into a J&K Informatics Service so that their promotional and other HR-related issues are duly taken care of. The day-to-day operations of the JaKeGA shall be overseen by an executive committee, headed by the principal secretary, IT.

BSNL has been identified as the agency to provide bandwidth needed for the SWAN project in the state. In fact, Kashmir has been one of the last states to join in the SWAN bandwagon. Eighty feasible PoP sites and sisty-three non-feasible PoPs are already being provided by BSNL. Initially, all twenty-two districts across the state will be covered and subsequently connectivity will be extended up to block and tehsil levels. According to Hashmi, the project has already been initiated and the first phase is likely to be completed by March 2010. While admitting that security is a concern, Hashmi argues that adequate measures have been taken for the successful completion of the project.

While SWAN is the initial milestone, even more crucial is the CSC project recently launched in the state. Named as e-Khidmat centers, 1,106 villages have been identified while J&K Bank has been selected as the SCA for the project. This will make it one CSC center per six villages, informs Hashmi. Currently, the administration has selected sixty village level entrepreneurs (VLEs) from the districts of Ganderbal, Pulwama, Bandipur, Udhampur out of which thirty VLEs have completed the training. VLE selection process is under progress in the districts of Budgam, Anantnag, Shopain, Kulgam, Leh , Kargil, Doda, Kishtwar, Baramulla, and Kupwara .

By Eid-ul-Fitr, Hashmi expects that 120 CSCs will be rolled out in the districts of Ganderbal, Bandipur, Budgam and Udhampur districts. The rest will be completed by March, Inshallah, prays Hashmi. The SWAN connections also need to be taken from the block levels to the CSC centers. Not just CSCs, under NeGP, the state has also embarked on the State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) project under which twelve FS have been selected.

The e-Dream
Beyond CSCs and SSDGs too, there is hope now with a new IT policy for the state likely to be framed by the year end. Another smart move from the governments side is an attempt to connect IT with tourism and handicraftstwo of the traditional and most flourishing businesses for the state. While tourism has not seen much beyond online portal till now, a complete e-commerce model can help facilatate Kashmirs rightful place as one of the best global tourist destinations. Also, considering the popularity of the states handicrafts worldwide, efforts are being made to create an e-procurement engine that will foster this business across the globe.

While Hashmi is confident that under Omar Abdullahs administration, CSCs will be a watershed affair for the state, earlier experiments do cause some sort of consternation. There is a general sense of dejection among people associated with the IT sector despite claims of the government of turning Kashmir into a hub of e-governance and e-learning.

The Community Information Center (CIC) project is one example. Jammu & Kashmir was the first state to be taken up for CIC project. It was felt that the basic needs of citizens such as information, education and health services can be addressed through the establishment of CICs in the state, says a CIC manager at Baramulla CIC He adds that CIC was supposed to be used as a platform for e-governance after completing the basic tenure of five years.

As the first phase is likely to end, CICs are yet to turn into the centers of e-governance and e-learning as per the plans. The National Informatics Center (NIC), Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, Government of India has completed all the formalities of handing over the same project to DIT. But that has not been done yet for reasons unknown, he adds.

Though the CM has time and again given statements of making IT an important sector in the state, the people associated with IT see no vibrancy in his statements. We are wageless for the past one year. It is not a matter of just about 250 employees but of their families as well, says another CIC manager.

Hashmi, however, assures that the Omar administration is genuinely interested in making IT and e-gov a major cog in the Kashmir development wheel. Though unlike other states CSCs cannot start providing critical services right from the start, they will initially offer services like voter lists, opportunity to download various government department forms like licenses, ration cards, etc. But what really should prove the genuineness of the current administration is the Awaaaz e Aam project initiated by the CMunder its aegis services are to be provided to common men where citizens can log their complaints in the e-khidmat centers.

Talent Going Waste?
While on the e-gov front, the likes of Hasmi see a ray of hope, there is a general sense of despondency that despite huge IT potential, especially in terms of IT-educated manpower, the state is not getting its due. Though successive governments have claimed that theyll turn the state into an IT hub, the professionals related to the field continue to remain jobless. These unemployed youth, who have completed their technical degrees, have accused the authorities of putting their career at stake claiming that not a single post for them has been advertised by the recruiting agencies of the government during the last one and a half decades.

Our technical skills and talent go waste as our services are not being utilized by the government anywhere, remarks an unemployed computer engineer, Idhries Ahmad. Despite the revolution brought about by IT, not a single post has been advertised for computer engineering here by the government during the last fifteen years, he adds. There are about 2,000 unemployed computer engineers. Though some of them have gone outside the state seeking jobs in the private sector most of them are either working on contractual basis in different government departments or are sitting idle at their homes.

One computer engineer who completed his BE in computers eight years ago has this to say. The government has completely ignored the computer engineers. Our careers have been put at stake. Instead of advertising posts for computer engineers we are made to work as computer operators, rather typists on contractual basis, against meager salaries in various departments, which is an injustice to us. Despite the importance of IT in the 21st century, we are made to run from pillar to post in search of jobs. Almost all the government departments now-a-days are fully computerized and whenever a fault develops in the software they realize the need of our services, he says. These unemployed professionals also allege that the government prefers Master of Computer Applications (MCA) candidates over them when the posts for lecturers at secondary level are advertised.

The MCA candidates, however, complain that they have also been ignored. There are more than 1,000 MCA pass outs only from the Kashmir University (KU) who are unemployed. In the last eight years only forty posts of lecturers for computer sciences at secondary level have been advertised by the Service Selection and Recruitment Board (SSRB). Not only the IT professionals, but all those who are well versed in computer sciences have been ignored, complains another disgruntled passout of the first MCA batch of Kashmir University. Despite the need of computer sciences in almost all educational institutions, the government continues to show reluctance in recruiting IT professionals, he says. On one hand the government claims to go for complete e-governance and on the other hand it continues to ignore the professionals without whom the dream of e-governance can never be fulfilled, he says, adding that if the authorities continue with their lackadaisical attitude towards computer engineers no one will prefer to go for MCA and other IT courses in future. The reason for failure of e-governance in the state, according is that the services of computer engineers were not sought to him, for effective information management.

Looking for Private Sector Participation
Hashmi agrees with the local sentiments, though he pleads that the government alone is helpless unless the private sector do not turn up in J&K in more numbers. He informs that for IT companies, only 5% of investment is required in the Valley to set up business operations as the government will provide other naturally available conditions. Ananthnag, Baramulla, Genderbal, Pulwama apart from Srinagar itself have been identified as potential areas for IT businesses to flourish. In fact, the BPO industry will be an ideal option to start with, he adds.

One can understand the reservations of the private sector too. Though the situation has improved much, one never knows when things can go wrongsecurity will always be a crucial issue for companies, moving to the Valley especially. Hashmi, however, assures there will be no security threats and the local populace will ensure that things run smoothly. On queried about frequent hartals and bandhs in Srinagar, he reiterates that those are more political posturingthats why locations other than Srinagar are being identified where there are lesser bandhs.

Its ultimately a chicken-and-egg situation. While much of the blame for the mess till now should go to the doors of successive Kashmir administrations, the private sector has some moral obligations to go there now, once the government is assuring of security. Unless some people dont start up initiatives (hardly any major vendor respond to the RFPs), things can never take off, forget improve. If the Kalshnikovs have to be stopped forever and a new order of Kashmiriyat to be established through e-gov and IT in general, then India IT, Inc has to embark on a new Mission Kashmir. And this one has to look beyond the one popularized by Hrithik Roshan and Sanjay Dutt in tinsel town.

Rajneesh De
rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in

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