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The solution would help provide online public services and record keeping
like online bill payment, taxes, land records, income certificates, loans,
driving licenses, birth and death certificates and various other government
entitlement programs in Indore
The SCO Group recently announced that the state government of Madhya Pradesh
has selected SCO Mobile Server as the platform for developing and deploying
government services across the country. The solution would help provide online
public services and record keeping, including online bill payment, taxes, land
records, income certificates, loans, driving licenses, birth and death
certificates and various other government entitlement programs. Implemented as a
pilot, the project using SCO Mobile Server enables e-provisioning of services
and access to government information using a cell phone over the cell carrier
network.
Need for the project
Many urban centers have set up web portals to facilitate the
citizen-to-government interface, as a one-stop destination for public access to
information on various aspects of government functions. However, rural centers
and cities lack the infrastructure necessary for every citizen to access the
web. In the absence of web connectivity, provisioning of government services is
done manually. In regions that do not have Internet access, citizens are forced
to wait in long lines for each service or information request.
In order to overcome delays and various hindrances, Ashok Das, Divisional
Commissioner, Indore envisioned that rural areas should participate in
e-governance by using the ubiquitous cellular network to capture and retrieve
data. As part of the initiative, the commissioner's office in Indore wanted to
leverage on its existing network and processes to ensure a more effective
working, through computerization and automation of departmental workflow. The
idea imparted by Das was brought together and executed by Veltronics India.
Project objective
At the commissioner's office, the progress of monitoring of activities like
data input, retrieval and reporting was being done using legacy/client server
systems. Although the progress of these activities could be recorded, the same
could not be extended to various officials of the revenue commissionerate for
direct data entry through the web.
The e-governance project aims to develop a monitoring and control system
within the existing framework of processes, which could cater to effective data
capture and transparent reporting to the commissioner's office in Indore.
Accordingly, instructions were given for the development of a management
information system (MIS), which would cater to various services over the web as
under-data capture, data retrieval and MIS reporting.
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| The current system helps
officials to enter the data online via the web interface anywhere and
anytime |
Data capture was the most critical activity planned. This would make use of
various modes of entry available via multiple points over the web. These points
could be individual workstations available with dial up, broadband access,
mobile telephony services or geographically distributed office locations of the
commissioner, which had direct broadband access to the centralized online
database maintained at the datacenter.
Data capturing includes the feeds to workflow processes existing within the
commissioner's office. These data feeds were received from various locations
like districts, tehsils and villages, which have been functioning on a manual
basis.
Data retrieval is done on a day-to-day basis and reporting is the output
generated from the MIS, which is used for analysis after the work is completed.
The project was all about choosing an e-mobility solution, which could ensure
uninterrupted data sharing process and make the current information available on
a real-time basis. SCO Mobile Server technology provided a complete end-to-end
solution, and it enabled users to upload and download data on the move
Project implementation
The project required more than 18 months for complete implementation. While
the pilot went off smoothly, one big challenge in the process was to convince
the department to go online and to assure them that by doing so, their data
security would not be compromised since there were secure layers and
encryptions.
Some of the highlights of the solution provided are that it is a technology
based on secured socket layer (SSL) and has interface with mobile telephony
(proposed). This gives the advantage of being more reliable, accurate and having
instant access to information. The system is authenticated and has encrypted
data for security with the introduction of a GPRS system as well. Technologies
like HTML/JAVA/ASP/Linux/PKI have been used in the solution design. Users were
given a complete handholding during the launch of the beta version of the
solution. During this time, process modifications were introduced to suit user
needs, via provision of new features.
Advantages
The current system helps officials to enter the data online via the web
interface anywhere and anytime. The data captured would be made available on the
centralized database and can be merged with the local database to generate
reports from the existing system. In future, they would be further extended to
provide additional mobility. For this, the revenue commisonerate has decided to
provide the e-mobility solution via devices like PDA phones.
Since cell coverage in rural areas is readily available, nearly every citizen
in Indore would be able to gain electronic access to services and information
post the implementation of the project. This means there would be a 24x7 access
for data capturing, retrieval and reporting. Additionally, there would be a 100
percent monitoring and control of the revenue commissioner's office activities.
This would, in turn, imply an increased accountability and ownership of the
departmental process. The centralized database would add to the user
convenience, while use of PDAs would enable viewing the online data anywhere on
the field.
In essence therefore, the SCO Mobile solution would help to capture data and
conduct business transactions. The project helped to develop a mobile monitoring
and control system within the existing framework of processes, which could cater
to effective data capture and transparent reporting for the office of revenue
department.
Projects for Veltronics
Based on the government's experience with this solution, SCO will offer
mobile solutions to other government departments. Meanwhile, Veltronics is also
working on other projects that include education sector for result processing
using OMR/ICR technologies as well as providing web solutions for colleges
besides library automation, campus automation and providing smart card
solutions.
As a player that has been implementing e-governance solutions of various
kinds, Veltronics believes that it would be able to deliver on its future
projects as well, given that it has a backup of a large network of development
and support centers.
Subbalakshmi BM
subbalakshmibm@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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