Of  late, the Kerala government has proven that it is not behind any other state in imple menting e-governance projects than s to a new breed of officers who have approached the task of computerization with a missionary zeal.

Even when citizen friendly projects such as Friends, Smart Ration Card, Sevana, e-shringala, Keralcraft.com, treasury computerization and the like get national attention, very few are aware of the sweat, toil and above all the leadership qualities of those fast track officers that enabled it to happen. Here is the story of five of them (both IAS and non-IAS) who had the vision and dynamism to make IT happen.

Ration becomes smart…
In January, Kerala achieved a unique feat by launching the first smart ration card. The officer behind it was M Sivasankar (IAS), Director of Civil Supplies. "For the citizens, a smart ration card may not be of much help but it certainly helps the administration prevent hoarding, black marketing and pilferage of PDS goods into the open market," said Sivasankar. "The larger objective is to set up a citizen database using the information on ration cards," he added.

Sivasankar who was involved with the IT implementation in the government for the past five years still feels FRIENDS, the one stop shop for payment of utility bills, is the show piece for Kerala. "In FRIENDS the emphasis was on training the employees to behave pleasantly with the public rather than mere deployment of IT," said Sivasankar. Getting departments to co-operate with the project was also an initial hurdle. He and his team went to Andhra Pradesh to study the `twin city’ project before launching FRIENDS.

"Rooms, air-conditioning, furniture and power have to be maintained by schools. Private bodies will be entrusted with hardware supply and the upkeep of software"  VP Joy (IAS),  director, public instruction

"In 1998-99 when I was with the IT Mission Group and Administrative Reforms Committee (ARC) our job was to evolve a framework for e-governance rather than implementation. Our survey revealed that Rs 45 crore had already been spent on computerization in departments but none were used for citizen friendly services," reports Sivasankar. IT firms provided some technology and solutions without understanding the government ethos, processes, systems and work culture. The gap between the government and service providers was bridged by ARC and by total solution providers. "Now many departments have definite plans for IT deployment most of which are citizen friendly," he adds. Kerala has adopted the Maharashtra model of empanelling PSU’s as total solution providers because government departments feel comfortable dealing with them instead of a multitude of private firms. The limitations in computerization continue such as lack of co-ordination between departments, portability of software and legacy systems, and lack of uniform Malayalam fonts.

Buses adopting IT
S Manoharan Nair, a superintendent at Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), has proven that even non-IAS officers can take a lead in IT implementation. Manoharan who joined as a clerk in 1971 is now implementing an ASP-based business transaction model, Venus, whereby 83 depots and five service depots of KSRTC are linked through a web server.

Programmed on visual basic riding on SQL servers, Venus integrates collection, inventory, fuel, payroll, accident, and accounting details on a daily basis and will be available for analysis/batch processing at the head office. "Many schedules are cancelled for want of tyre cards. As many as 500 tyres get punctured every day but the repaired tyres cannot be used unless its tyre card which is with the respective bus depot is send on time. At present, it may take a week to get the tyre card", he added. Now the tyre cards can be generated electronically from any depot by feeding the required information on website.

"Treasury computerization will lead to better money management techniques, while IT-enablement of the tax set-up will see better monitoring of revenues" Prof R Sahadevan,  director, information systems, state finance department

Manoharan left KSRTC a few times only to be persuaded to rejoin. In 1985 when a computer cell was formed in KSRTC he was the first to pass the Keltron test in COBOL and BASIC. Keltron was assisting KSRTC with inventory control and MIS.

Later, KSRTC decided to do it in-house thanks to the confidence shown by Manoharan. In 1988, he took up centralized vehicle management and in 1995 one of the depots was made online for waybill, ticket collection and accounting. "In 1995, I took a five-year leave to join Tandem Infotech as a trainer for their C-DAC courses. In 1996, I cancelled the leave to rejoin KSRTC. Then I found it difficult to get the IT proposals approved by the Director board." Subsequently he went on leave in 1997 to rejoin Tandem where he was also responsible for software development. He led the team that devised a web-based business transaction model and Café Manager software for cyber café management.

"In July 2001, I rejoined KSRTC following persuasion from the new Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar who was keen on implementing IT," said Manoharan. "The Minister assured me functional autonomy and sufficient funds for deployment of IT," he added. Despite being a junior officer Manoharan has managed to get his ideas implemented in the organization.

Of glorified typewriters…
S Ajayakumar (IAS), Industries Secretary and Managing Director of Keltron is not disturbed by remarks that PCs in offices are nothing beyond a ‘glorified typewriter’. "Using it as word processor will be the beginning," he says. He is proud that Keltron is involved with most of the e-governance projects in the state. Ajayakumar was also responsible for Keltron’s foray as a total solutions provider for IT during the past three years. His most ambitious project is the‘ e-shringala‘, the community information kiosks being set up in all the panchayats in Kerala. This was launched with the involvement of panchayats and local bodies. The series of e-governance activities in his domain include an e-com portal (Keralcraft.com) for traditional industries, a sub-contracting exchange for small business men interested in taking up contract jobs for large industry, a web based monitoring system for Ministers, heads of departments and secretaries to track the performance of plan schemes, utilization of funds, work progress etc. He was responsible for the Keltron-billjunction.com tie-up to facilitate utility bills payment online and the Vehicle Traffic Management System to monitor police, excise and sales tax raids is another project being undertaken by Keltron.

"A good 500 tyres of state buses get punctured every day, but repaired ones cannot be used—unless its tyre card, which is with the respective bus depot, is sent in on time" S Manoharan Nair, superintendent, KSRTC

Keltron devised an ISDN based messaging system for the government in record time when it was required during the month-long strike by government employees in February. Many departments are facing the problem of non-availability of machines. Only 20% of the requirement of 1000 PCs is currently available. The mindset of using IT for productive purposes has not fully dawned in a state that was traditionally not computer-friendly. Citizen friendly services cannot take off when PC penetration is low. Hence, Keltron used the kiosk model for e-shringala. Many agencies agreed in principle to utilize Keltron-billjunction.com facility but are slow in implementation. "Many departments are reluctant in sharing information vital for total solutions providers to implement solutions," he said. "Even when solutions capable of being deployed across departments are developed they are not utilized resulting in duplication", Ajayakumar added.

Pensions become hassle-free
Many retired employees now need to spend less time before the payment treasuries to get their monthly pension thanks to IT deployment in payment treasuries in the state capital. The Finance Department expects the Treasury Networking and computerization to be over by 2003. IT deployment had helped the Budget Wing in the preparation of the 2002-03 State Budget despite the month old strike by government employees. One of the key resource persons in implementing IT in Finance Dept is Prof R Sahadevan, Director, Information Systems who is also a consultant to various other departments.

"The larger objective is to set up a citizen identity database, using information from ration cards" M Sivasankar (IAS), director of civil supplies

Prior to this he was the joint director of the LBS Center for Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram and Chairman, Computer Society of India (Kerala chapter). His technical background has provided him with a firm base to conceptualize and advise the department in its various ventures.

"Treasury computerization will lead to better `money management’ while computerization of commercial taxes will lead to better monitoring of revenue," feels Sahadevan. The mindset of the average employee in the Finance Department has changed due to extensive training — including basic computer training, application software and implementation. However, no miracles can be expected in the government. "This is largely because of procedural delays. For e.g. for procurement of hardware, store purchase manuals may have to be adhered to. No department head will go out of his way in the procurement or implementation deviating from the procedures and rules," claims Sahadevan. During the past few years a cultural change has taken place in departments and now PC’s are no longer dumped into unopened boxes for rats to feast on.

Educating the next generation
Despite Kerala’s good track record in literacy it is still behind other states in IT deployment. Making up for the lost time and making do with a shoestring budget is indeed an arduous task. However, V P Joy, IAS, Director of Public Instruction has taken it up with a smile. For the past six months, Joy has been in charge of Kerala’s ambitious IT@school project. He studied the IT projects implemented in other states. "But the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu models of open tendering cannot work in Kerala." Primarily because of constraints in fund allocation and secondly the need to have control over the curriculum and course material.

"Many departments are reluctant to share information that’s vital for end-to-end solutions providers to implement projects" S Ajayakumar (IAS),  ndustries secretary and managing director, Keltron

IT@School is being implemented on a unique and decentralized manner from the 8th standard in 2004 government schools from academic year 2002-03. The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) has prepared the curriculum while it is up to the panchayats, parent teacher associations, and elected representatives to implement the project. They have to raise the resources through MP Funds, panchayats own funds, and contributions from PTAs. Rooms, air-conditioning, furniture, and power have to be ensured by the schools while private agencies will be entrusted with hardware supply and software. This will be done on a BOT basis for five years after which the entire system would be handed over to the government. Schools have been allowed to levy a maximum fee of Rs 25 per month from a student while fees will be waived for SC/ST students. "The aim is to introduce IT as a topic of study and as a tool for education," Joy said. Government will only act as a facilitator and provide broad guidelines.

Although IT@school was talked about for the last two years it has achieved a concrete shape only during the last six months.

This was after innumerous meetings and discussions between the education department, SCERT, panchayat leaders, PTA’s in schools. "Now there is enthusiasm to implement the project in schools," he added. Joy was also instrumental in implementing computerization in tabulation work for SSLC final examinations last year that resulted in the announcement of results much earlier.

Kerala seems to be copying the model of success from other IT savvy states. And given the red tapism and archaic rules that exist in government departments the Herculean efforts of these individuals are more than creditworthy. If the efforts of these men are allowed to take shape, very soon the state will have more than reason to cheer!

R Sreekumar/CNS in Thiruvananthapuram