There was a period that saw ‘IT for the Masses’ initiatives being kicked off in quick succession. Here’re some that have been around for a while now, and have been much talked about...

GUNG-HO: Rajnish Bhandari of Aksh Broadband

Weeding out Graft and Corruption
Aksh Broadband, an offshoot of parent company Aksh Optic Fiber, has invested Rs 20 crore in its Gramdoot project in Rajasthan. Aksh has also taken up a room in the directorate, where two employees access complaints from villages and manually direct them to the departments concerned. Rajnish Bhandari, president of Aksh Broadband, expects the kiosks to break even on operating cost around six months after launching services. He pegs the actual return on investment (including the cost of setting infrastructure etc) to be realized in four to five years.

Bhandari highlights the virtues of online interaction, pointing out that the government official-citizen face-to-face interaction has been done away with and that there’s no pressure for bribes. Ironically, the lack of this "pressure point" has been one of the key reasons that online complaints have not succeeded! Jaipur Court and district magistrate Sudhansh Pant, however, dismisses the "elimination of corruption" issue that can only heal itself with time. One cannot expect IT to solve all problems," he says. Pant explains how his office recently implemented the Samaaddhan software package for online complaint redressal.

"Everyday I get a report on which complaints have been addressed. If a complaint is not addressed after two reminders, an officer has to appear for a hearing before me," he says.

Catch ’em Young