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2006-11-14T02:44:00.000-08:00

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2006-11-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

GYANDOOT – A MADHYA PRADESH STATE VENTURE

Information is the key to democracy. With the advent of information technology, it has become possible for the common man to access global information.

Dhar or Dharanagari is located on the South Western corner of Central India and has a population of 1.7 million, with 54% population being tribal (Bhils, Bhilalas, patleiyas) and 60% population living below poverty line. Dhar is the Soya & cotton belt of Malwa & Nimar.This tribal dominated district boasts of a rich wealth of arts, flourishing soya and cotton markets and the largest industrial estate of Madhya Pradesh (pithampur), Mandu, the largest walled city in the world, and the world renowned millennium and a half old Bag cave frescoes hark back to a glorious past. Agriculture and industry are the twin mainstays of business here. Dhar handles close to 4 billion Rupees worth of agriculture commodities, principally soya, cotton and wheat. Located close to Agra-Bombay NH2 and an hour's drive from Indore, Pithampur is the largest automobile centre in Asia. District administration supports commercial ventures in low cost housing material, exclusive indigenous arts and fashionable footwear.

On January 1, Dhar district had created history by entering the millennium with a mass-based revolution. The Madhya Pradesh government began a project to fund rural networked cyber kiosks through panchayats in backward Dhar to offer villagers a range of services through an intranet based at the headquarters.This intranet system was named GYANDOOT (messenger of information).

Computers in 20 village centres in five Blocks of the district were wired through an Intranet network (presently there are 31 such wired village centres). Local rural youth act as entrepreneurs for running cybercafes-cum-cyberoffices. The computers in the network have been established in Gram Panchayats (Village Committee). They have been called Soochanalayas (Information Kiosks). The Soochanalayas provide user-charge-based services to the rural people.
From the soochnalayas, user-charge based services are given and at the same time, the information technology-related development needs of the government and panchayats are met free of cost. People outside the district can avail of some of these facilities through the corresponding Internet website -
www. Gyandoot.Net.

Established at a cost of Rs 25 lakh through funds available with the panchayats, each Soochnalaya caters to the surrounding 25-30 villages. The district and block levels communicate through Hindi e-mail.

The person operating the Soochanalaya is a local matriculate operator and is called Soochak. A soochak is not an employee but an entrepreneur. The Soochak only needs maintenance and numeric data entry skills. He needs very limited typing skills since most of the Intranet software is menu-driven.

The Soochaks for 20 centres originally started were selected interactively by village committees and the local community. Three member panels were selected by the community who received training at their own cost at the District Council. At the end of the training, the best trainees were selected out of a panel of three as Soochaks. He / she runs the Soochanalaya on commercial lines. He has an initial one-year agreement with the village committee. He does not receive any salary. He bears the cost of stationery, maintenance and electric and telephone bills. He pays 10% of income as commission to the Zila Panchayat (District Council) for maintaining the net.

In the 11 centres that were started as private enterprise, the Soochak is the owner of the establishment and pays Rs. 5,000 as a license fee for one year to district council. Each Soochak is expected to earn a net income of at least Rs. 36,000 per annum at conservative projections.

SERVICES AND FACILITIES

During the formation of the project proposal a detailed exercise was taken up involving the villagers and the community. The selection of the services was a result of this interactive exercise and was based upon the advice and the felt needs of the villagers. In these meetings, it was learnt that due to lack of information regarding the current and prevailing mandi (agriculture produce auction centres) rates, the farmers were unable to get the best price for their agricultural produce. Villagers also informed that copies of land records were difficult to obtain. The villager who requires a copy of the land record had to go out in search of the patwari (village functionary who maintains all land records) who may or may not be available on that particular day at his headquarters. For small complaints or for giving applications, people had to go to district headquarter which resulted in waste of time, money and potential livelihood earnings. The services offered on the Gyandoot network are:

1. Commodity / Mandi Marketing Information System.
2. Income Certificate.
3. Domicile Certificate (mool niwasi).
4. Caste Certificate.
5. Landholder's passbook of land rights and loans (Bhoo adhikar evam rin pustika).
6. Rural Hindi e-mail.
7. Public Grierana Redressal (Shikayat Nivaran)
8. Forms of Various Government Schemes.
9. Below Poverty Line Family List.
10. Employment news.
11. Rural matrimonial (Vivah Sambandh).
12. Rural Market (Gaon ka Bazaar).
13. Rural News Paper (Gram Samachar).
14. Advisory module (Salahkar)
15. E-education.
16. Driving License.

The details of some of the services are

 Agriculture Produce Auction Centre Rates:

The variety-wise current and prevailing rates of prominent cereal crops of the district like wheat, gram, soybean, etc. at local and other prominent auction centres of the country are available on-line. Other statistics of the auction centres e.g. the volume of incoming agricultural produce, previous rates etc are also provided on demand. The facility is available at a nominal charge of Rs. 5. Horticulture crops like tomato, potato, peas, and green chillies, guava etc.are produced in substantial quantity in the district. The rates of these commodities are also available.

 On-line Registration of Applications:

For long, the villagers had to go to the local revenue court to file applications for obtaining income / caste / domicile certificates or for getting demarcation done or for obtaining landholder's loan passbook (rin pustika) etc. They would make repeated visits to the court to enquire about the progress of the application as well as to finally collect the prepared document. Now, through Soochanalayas they may send the application at a cost of only Rs. 10 and thereafter, in a maximum period of 10 days, preferably less, an intimation of the readiness of the certificate is sent back to them through e-mail at the concerned Soochanalaya. Thereafter, they may go to the concerned court to collect the certificate.

 On-line Public Grievance Redressal

Wherever there were problems in the delivery of services, the villagers were required to travel at the cost of time, money and livelihood to the blocks, tahsil or district headquarters without any certainty that they would even be able to meet the officer concerned. Now through the Soochanalaya, a villager may send his / her complaint with assurance of reply within a maximum period of seven days, preferably lesser, at a charge of Rs. 10. The reply to his complaint after redressal is sent back at the Soochanalaya through e-mail. Complaints available on the intranet include complaints regarding drinking water, scholarship sanction, disbursement, quality of seed, fertiliser, employee establishment matters (like leave or provident fund sanction) queries, functioning of school, public distribution system, beneficiary oriented schemes, functioning of village committee etc.

 Rural e-mail facility:

A fee based e-mailing facility, which is provided in the intranet- it, has all the features and facilities of a state-of-the-art web based e-mail.

 Village auction site:

This facility was started in July 2000 where auction facilities are available to farmers and villagers for land, agricultural machinery, bullocks or equipment or other durable commodities. It opened a new horizon of e-transactions in the rural areas. The middlemen involved in the rural commodity transaction market were eliminated through this facility. One could put one’s commodity on sale for charges of Rs. 25/- for three months and browse the list of salable commodities for Rs. 10/-.

 On line matrimonial site:

This is a fee based on-line matrimonial service for the villagers to choose the right match for a prospective bride/groom. Every entry from a Soochanalaya by a villager gets added on to a centralized database with search facility on various criteria. The user charge for service rendered is Rs. 25/- for three months. The program has been designed to suit the requirements of the villagers.

 Information regarding government programmes:

Detailed Information regarding over a hundred government programmes is now available on the Gyandoot Intranet. The villagers have an access to the information regarding all government programmes related to rural development.

 Sawaliram se puchiye:

This site provides opportunity to schoolchildren to ask inquisitive questions regarding career counseling or any other field from Sawaliram at no cost. A team of experts at the district headquarter provide the answers within three days. The facility is created to promote inquisitiveness, ability to inquire and scrutinize among the school children.

 Ask the expert:

This facility is aimed at farmers and villagers who can inquire about latest techniques, advice for their problems, new technologies etc. from a group of experts pertaining to fields of agriculture, animal husbandry, health, or related to legal opinion. The service is provided at Rs 5/- user charge.

 Avedan Patra:

This facility provides on-line application formats required by local administration and departments of the state government. Thus, application forms are available at the doorsteps of the villagers and avoid their running from pillar to post for these application forms.

 Transparency in government working:

Updated and latest information regarding public distribution system, list of below poverty line families, beneficiaries of social security pension, beneficiaries of rural development schemes, information regarding government grants given to village committees, etc. are available on the intranet. This makes the government functioning transparent.

 Gaon ka Akhabar (Village Newspaper):

A local web-based newspaper is available to cater to the rural people. The newspaper delivers micro-news about the happening around the villages where Soochaks act as correspondents.

 E-education (shiksha gyandoot):

This site contains reading material to supplement and help the students in understanding and learning their subjects in a better way. It contains syllabuses of various subjects taught in class X and XII, question banks developed by a team of experts to help in preparation of exams, chithi to help them keep in touch with other schools connected to the intranet etc.

 Employment News:

This site contains employment news for semi skilled employees.

 Below Poverty line list:

The site contains the whole list of below the poverty line families and anyone can check his her name in the list.

STRENGTHENING OF PROJECT:

In order to make Soochanalayas economically viable entities and to improve the functioning of the project following steps are being taken:

 Additional facilities at Soochanalayas:

To make Soochanalayas economically viable soochaks are given licenses to vendor government judicial stamps and powers of petition writers are also delegated to them. Due to the delegation of above-mentioned powers additional incomes are possible and the Soochanalayas are becoming virtual cyber offices.
 On-line linking of all departments with gyandoot server:

A local Area Network (LAN) linking all the major district offices has been installed. As a result, the district heads of various government departments like health, education, tribal development, revenue, food, agriculture, public health engineering, District Council and District Magistrate etc. are connected directly to gyandoot network. This provides backup support and logistics to gyandoot network.

 Wireless in Local Loop:

The Gyandoot Samiti is introducing low cost TDMA based Wireless in Local Loop (WiLL) technology in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. This technology will facilitate large-scale multiplication of Soochanlayas in the hinterland where traditional plain old telephone system has not reached. The technology has power to increase access speed and provide reliable connectivity. The technology will also help the kiosk operator to run two connections at a time, e.g. STD PCO (voice connectivity) and Internet/Intranet (data communication).

 E-education initiatives:

The Gyandoot Samiti, with the help from Members of Parliament, have established 34 kiosks at the high schools and higher secondary schools. They are providing them local educational contents through the server. They are also accessing Internet for other educational contents. Each school has Computer Clubs to promote activities related to IT among rural students.

EXPANSION OF THE PROJECT:

Some fundamental guidelines were framed for future expansion. They were:

1). Centers to be opened only in the villages where local telephone exchange is having OFC and fair connectivity,
2). New centers to be created through private investment.
3). New services and facilities to be introduced in phased manner.

THE NEW FACILITIES PLANNED OVER NEXT 2 YEARS:

1. E-News for the district
2. Distance education
3. ‘Registration of property transaction
4. Feedback system on the development programmes’
5. Bare foot doctor

ACTION PLAN FOR INCREASING USAGE OF THE NETWORK

A comprehensive and integrated multi-media mass campaign concentrating on IEC activities was launched in the district. The campaign focused on penetration and propagation of the project in the hinterland of the district. Indian Institute of Management, Indore collaborated to provide structured inputs for the IEC activities. The steps taken included:

 Gyandoot medhavi chhatra (talented students) scholarship:

From the funds available with Gyandoot, two scholarships each of Rs. 1,000/- per month for 5 years were announced. Those students who motivated 10 or more villagers to use gyandoot facilities between the period 1st September to 31st December 2000 were eligible for the scholarship. The scholarships were finalised through an on-line test of the eligible students and the result of the test were declared on 26th January 2001. This scheme used the services of the students to propagate new technology and its power among the rural masses.

 Visit of school children to nearest Soochnalaya:

Students of class IX, X, XI, XII were taken to the nearest Soochanalaya on study tours. These students were given elaborate demonstration on the Gyandoot Intranet system and the facilities available at the centre.

 Gramsabha in the villages in the project area :

Special gramsabhas (Meeting of all villagers) in each village in the project area were started by January 2001. These specially convened village meetings would deliberate on Gyandoot and its services, which are available there at nominal cost.

 Audio-Visual campaign :

Posters and pamphlets were distributed to all the concerned village committees. TV cable network and cinema halls were used to popularise Gyandoot services. Audiocassettes carrying Gyandoot messages were used in weekly haat bazaars (market places).

 Gyandoot Computer Clubs:

Gyandoot Computer Clubs were established in major high schools and higher secondary schools of the district.

 Incentives:

Incentive in the form of cash awards (Rs.5, 000/-, Rs.3, 000/-, Rs. 2,000/-) along with certificate of excellence were given to three best performing Soochaks and certificate of appreciation were given to the village head of the concerned village committee. These incentives are being offered twice a year.

STOCKHOLM CHALLENGE AWARD 2000:

Gyandoot project of Dhar District was awarded the Stockholm Challenge IT Award 2000,at Stockholm on 6th June 2000.In the words of the organisers, Stockholm City Economic Development Agency in partnership with the European Commission:

"The Stockholm Challenge Award is a challenge between pioneering IT projects world wide ... The Stockholm Challenge award focuses on the benefit that information technology can bring people and society. The technology itself is not the issue. ... The single most important criterion is the benefit the project can bring to individuals, society and the environment by using inspirational approaches within the local context."
Gyandoot was declared winner in "Public Service and Democracy" category out of 109 IT projects from all over the world. The Gyandoot project was the only Indian project to receive the award in any category in last four years.

The 29 member international Jury stated its motivation in identifying Gyandoot Project as a winner as follows:

"Project "Gyandoot" is a unique Government to Citizen Intranet project implemented in a tribal district (Dhar) in Central India, with numerous benefits to the region, including a people-based self-reliant sustainable strategy. "Gyandoot" is recognised as a breakthrough in e-government, demonstrating a paradigm shift which gives marginalized tribal citizens their first ever chance to access knowledge, with minimum investment."

CSI-TCS NATIONAL IT AWARD:

The project was awarded the CSI-TCS National IT Award instituted by the Computer Society of India, for best IT usage, for the year 2000.The final contestants for the award were ICICI Bank, Global Trust Bank, SAIL and National Crime Record Bureau, along with the Gyandoot project.

CONCLUSION

This project has been a landmark achievement for the state of Madhya Pradesh and an example of a successful e governance project.

2006-11-10T04:52:00.000-08:00

What is e governance?

Evolution of the word “networked” or “e-Governance” can be reviewed at the crossroad of two major shifts - governance and information revolution. The issue of “governance” has been around for a while. According to the Oxford Dictionary , the word “governance” has been developed from a Greek word “kuberna” which means to steer. The first classic political science essays on the subject talked about the concept of “governability”, which made the rule of law as the core to development.
Electronic Governance is the application of Information Technology to the processes of Government functioning in order to bring about Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent (SMART) Governance. Electronic governance also involves transformation from being a passive information and service provider to active citizen involvement. Evolution of E-Governance is a highly complex process requiring provision of hardware, networking, software and re-engineering of the procedures for better delivery of services.

HISTORY

E-governance originated in India during the seventies with a focus on in- house government applications in the areas of defence, economic monitoring, planning and the deployment of ICT to manage data intensive functions related to elections, census, tax administration etc. The effort of the National Informatics Center (NIC) to connect all the district headquarters during the eighties was a watershed. From the early nineties, e-governance has seen the use of IT for wider sectoral applications with policy emphasis on reaching out to rural areas and taking in greater inputs from NGOs and private sector as well.

Traditionally, the interaction between a citizen or business and government agency took place in a government office. With emerging ICT (information communication technology) it is possible to locate service centers closer to the clients. Such centers may consist of unattended kiosks in the government agency, a service kiosk located close to the client, or the use of a personal computer in the home or office. E-Governance is an opportunity to take advantage of the increased productivity and reduced costs that can be achieved using Internet based technology. E-Governance can enhance the citizen's access to government information and services (both central and local), and can provide new ways to increase citizen participation in the democratic process

The role of ICT in Governance Sphere could be 4 fold:

• Improve quality of governance products and services being currently provided
• Provide new governance services and products
• Enhance participation of people in choice & provision of governance
products & services
• Bring new sections of society under the governance sphere (including those who are most likeable to remain excluded - namely the poor, the illiterate, the differently abled, indigenous people, the migrants and displaced people)

Any government is a large and complex organization with many facets of operations and a source for a wide variety of services and information. This is particularly true for democratic governments and more so in countries like India. Various functions and aspects of such governments have been converted into electronic or networked forms.

E Governance may include very broad range of services for almost all segments of society. The most common areas of E-Governance applications are:

• Electronic commerce and business regulations
• Taxation and revenue
• Law enforcement and courts
• Digital democracy
• Agriculture
• Education
• Health
• Transport

Government transactions
The government transactions include

G2C: Government to Citizen Interface.This involves Governance processes involving significant citizen interface. For example, Utility bill payment, Issue of driving license, Birth/Death registration, Property Tax etc

G2B: Government to Business Transactions.
This involves interactions between Government & Business.
For example, E-Procurement, E-payments, Company Registrations, Trade Licenses/Permits etc.

G2G: Government-to-Government.
This involves Internal Government processes (intra and inter-departmental).
For example, Employee Information System, accounting, payroll , Project Monitoring, Repository of Parliament Questions & Answers etc.

The UN’s Five Guiding Principles on E-government Objectives are:

1. Building services around citizens’ choices.
2. Making government and its services more accessible.
3. Social inclusion.
4. Providing information responsibly.
5. Using IT and human resources effectively and efficiently.
Looking at our country, e governance has seen a major growth from what it was earlier.According to the national e governance plan for the period 2003-2007 the e governance plan of any state must provide
• Adequate weightage for quality and speed of implementation in procurement procedures for IT services .
• Incorporation of suitable system of incentivization of states to encourage adoption .
• a trend of delivery of services through common service centres and wherever possible services should be outsourced .
• room for full utilization of private sector investment potential .

E GOVERNANCE PROJECTS IN INDIA

Though e-governance in India is still in its infancy, there have been remarkable achievements in this area. Over 20 states/union territories already have an IT policy in place. Many e governance projects have been receiving international recognition. For eg the gyandoot initiative in Madhya Pradesh was given the Stockholm challenge award etc.The various e governance projects in our country are listed in the table below

Some E-governance Initiatives

State/Union Territory Initiatives covering departmental automation, user charge collection, delivery of policy/programme information and delivery of entitlements
Andhra Pradesh E-Seva, CARD, VOICE, MPHS, FAST, e-Cops, AP online—One-stop-shop on the Internet, Saukaryam, Online Transaction processing
Bihar Sales Tax Administration Management Information
Chattisgarh Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society, Treasury office, e-linking project
Delhi Automatic Vehicle Tracking System, Computerisation of website of RCS office, Electronic Clearance System, Management Information System for Education etc
Goa Dharani Project
Gujarat Mahiti Shakti, request for Government documents online, Form book online, G R book online, census online, tender notice.
Haryana Nai Disha
Himachal Pradesh Lok Mitra
Karnataka Bhoomi, Khajane, Kaveri
Kerala e-Srinkhala, RDNet, Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of Services (FRIENDS)
Madhya Pradesh Gyandoot, Gram Sampark, Smart Card in Transport Department, Computerization MP State Agricultural Marketing Board (Mandi Board) etc
Maharashtra SETU, Online Complaint Management System—Mumbai
Rajasthan Jan Mitra, RajSWIFT, Lokmitra, RajNIDHI
Tamil Nadu Rasi Maiyams–Kanchipuram; Application forms related to public utility, tender notices and display
North-Eastern States
Arunachal Pradesh, Community Information Center. Forms available on
Manipur, Meghalaya, The Meghalaya website under schemes related to
Mizoram & Nagaland Social welfare, food civil supplies and consumer affairs, housing transport etc.

LOK MITRA – E GOVERNANCE PROJECT IN HIMACHAL PRADESH

The Government of Himachal Pradesh is committed to provide the general public, especially living in distant rural areas of the State, with the benefits of "Using Information Technology (IT) in Governance (E-Governance)" at their doorstep. The Web-enabled Government-Citizen Interface, named as LOKMITRA, is one such step of the State Government in that direction. The following are the objectives of the venture
• Easy access to Government Information at the remotest corners of the State;
• Redressal of complaints without physically visiting the Government offices;
• Transparency in the working of the Government;
Responsive and responsible Administration etc.
Hamirpur district has been chosen for introducing the project on a pilot basis by setting-up a district-wide INTRANET. The project will result in various direct/indirect social as well as economic benefits to the rural masses, as indicated below:

SERVICES OFFERED BY LOK MITRA

Classified Complaints: The citizen can lodge any of the classified grievances or complaints against the listed departments in a pre-defined format. For these classified complaints, either the grievance will be redressed or the action initiated by the District Administration towards the redressal of the complaint will be intimated. In any case, the complainant will get a reply within 10 days.

Downloadable Forms: All types of forms which the citizens need for various purposes have been put on the LokMitra Interface and these can be obtained directly from the Citizen Information Centres. There will be no scarcity of any form and the time spent on visiting the concerned office for obtaining the form will also be saved

Vacancies: All vacancies being publicized by the H.P. Subordinate Staff Selection Board Hamirpur are being put on the LokMitra. The public can search the vacancies through the Centres and obtain application forms also.
Tenders: The small tenders being floated locally by the Public Works department, Municipal Committee, Irrigation & Public Health, DRDA/Planning departments etc. are also being put under this option.

Promotional Schemes: The various Promotional Schemes for general public from all Departments have been included. One can also find out as how to take benefit under a particular scheme, which forms to be filled, how to obtain those forms and other formalities to be completed without actually going to any of the offices.

Market Rates: The rates of vegetables, which are grown in Hamirpur district are collected from six nearby Markets and put on LokMitra. The rates will be available on daily basis and the Growers will have the facility to compare rates in different Mandis of the same items and/or for different dates.

CONCLUSION

E governance has certain significant benefits. It is beneficial for both them functioning of the government and the citizens. The citizen benefits because there is transparency, efficiency and integrity in his dealings with the government; furthermore, there is easy information access. The government benefits because it reduces redundancy and duplication. The processes of data collection, analysis and audit are made much easier. Decision making gets expedited. And there can be tremendous improvements in specialized areas such as criminal justice, transport etc. The business community benefits because E-Governance can become a catalyst and a channel for e-business, and in fact it has been so in places like the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Singapore. Furthermore a web-based government will enable tax paying online and reduce corruption and bending of laws. This is just the beginning in our country. The net facilities need to penetrate more and benefit those who really require these services. The hype about e governance projects and its success seems very limited to cities and towns. This leaves a majority of the rural population wanting. This is where communication strategies become important in enabling the rural people to access this technological progress.

Bibliography
• www.mit.gov.in
• www.himachal.nic.in
• www.egovindia.org
• www.bangaloreit.com

2006-11-08T01:26:00.000-08:00

mid sems from fri