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Karnataka and especially Bengaluru has been seeing a lot of e-governance
initiatives in the recent past. Bangalore One, a key initiative of the state
government to provide quick services to its citizens has been a huge success.
Replicas of Bangalore One are in the pipeline. Things are shaping up well for
the state and Bengaluru city as MN Vidyashankar, principal secretary,
e-governance department, DPAR, Government of Karnataka, has an additional role
to play, that of the District In-charge Secretary for Dakshina Kannada. Excerpts
from an exclusive tete-a-tete with Dataquest.
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| MN Vidyashankar,
principal secretary, e-Governance, DPAR (AR), Government of Karnataka
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What are the key initiatives/projects lined up for Karnataka?
The Rs 130 crore Karnataka state wide area network (SWAN) project will be
launched in October 2009. This project will have both horizontal and vertical
connectivity at the taluka, district and state levels. The offices in taluka
will be linked to district offices, district offices to be linked with state
offices, and in the state all government offices will be linked. The government
is also tendering for the second data center, valued at approximately Rs 600-650
mn. This will be the first Level 3 data center in the country which will be
launched in November this year. It will be the first city in the country to set
up data entry based BPOs exclusively for the physically challenged and widows.
The BPO for the physically challenged in Bangalore city is ready for
inauguration and it should be operational by the first week of October, 2009..
The survey work has started and we are thinking of launching the first BPO
exclusively for widows in January 2010. The government is also tendering a new
secretariat land.
What is the progress on the paperless office project?
About ten to twelve government departments in the state will go completely
paperless by September 2010. About forty-three government departments in the
state will have paperless workflow in the next four years, with all firewalls
and e-tokens in position.
Are there any specific initiatives for Bengaluru city in particular?
Bengaluru is one of the major beneficiaries of the e-governance initiatives in
the state. Currently there are fifty-three centres of Bangalore One in the
city. We are planning to expand it to nearly hundred centers by the end of
December this year. Bangalore One is a stationary initiative. We are also
putting something called as e-service on the wheels, -where all the services
given by Bangalore One will also be given through a mobile van.
What are the initiatives for tier-2 and -3 cities?
We are going for a massive hardware penetration at the Taluk and Sub Taluk
level. We are in the process of procuring close to 12,000-13,000 desktops for
deployment in tier-2 and tier-3 towns in the Karnataka state. This should happen
in the next three to four months.
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Amenities at Bangalore One (B1) Centers |
| One managers cabin & one accounts officers
cabin |
| One server room |
| Generator and UPS backup |
| A server of adequate capacity
with adequate configuration, to connect to the B1 data center and also to
support offline transactions in the event of a failure of connections to the
B1 data center |
| Computers for each counter |
| One DMP printer for each
counter for issuing receipts |
| Bar code readers at each counter for reading the
bar coded bills |
| Credit card readers. |
| Laser printer for printing certificates |
| One currency counting and fake
currency detector machine |
| One fax machine |
| LAN facility connecting the
server with all the computing systems in the service center including the
token dispensing system and the EQMS. |
| Powder-coated chairs for citizens to wait for
their turn |
| Television |
| Newspaper stand with four newspapers and four
magazines |
| Writing table for filling up
of forms |
| Filtered water |
| Drop box for collection of
citizen feedback |
| BS 7799 compliance at the Citizen Service
centers |
What is the development in the UID space?
Karnataka has been chosen as the first state by the Unique Identification
Authority of India (UIDAI) for implementation of unique identification on a
pilot basis. On the UID project front, the first set of guidelines are likely to
be issued by the UIDAI sometime in October 2009. We will take it forward as soon
as we receive that.
What is the ticketing solution offered once the Metro Project is complete?
The ticketing solution to Metro project is something we will be discussing with
the managing director of Bengaluru Metro Rail. We are yet to start the
discussions. We have presentations from about four MNCs who have introduced
multi-modal ticket system in Hong Kong, San Francisco and Singapore. After we
firm up on the technical front, we will be discussing with the MD, BMRCL.
What will be your focus for rural Karnataka?
We already have the Nemmadi project in place, which through a PPP model,
delivers IT-enabled government services to the local public in rural areas. We
plan to come out with Version 2.2 of the Nemmadi Project that will focus on
nineteen Kendras in the first phase and would be rolled out in the remaining
Kendras in a phased manner.
Your comments on BengaluruFive Years from Now.
Last year, the state government saw 25% growth rate in exports which was higher
than the national average, valued close to Rs 75,000 crore. Replicas of
Bangalore One are also in the pipeline. Eight such corporations will have
similar outfits in their respective cities. We have mega plans for the city and
the state is ready for rollout in the weeks to come. We will hopefully regain
the top slot in a year.
PC Suraj
surajp@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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