Thursday, December 29, 2011

Electronic Delivery of Services Bill Introduced in the Lok Sabha on 27th December 2011

electronic_delivery_of_services_Bill_as_introduced_in_Lok_Sabha.pdf Download this file
Corrigenda_Electronic_Delivery_(26.12.11).doc Download this file

As extracted from the Lok Sabha debates

27.12.2011 Uncorrected / Not for Publication

 

ELECTRONIC DELIVERY OF SERVICES BILL

 

1109 hours

THE MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND MINISTER

OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI

KAPIL SIBAL):  I beg to move for leave to introduce a Bill to provide for

electronic delivery of public services by the Government to all persons to ensure

transparency, efficiency, accountability, accessibility and reliability in delivery of

such services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. 

 

MADAM SPEAKER: The question is: 

 “That leave be granted to introduce a Bill to provide for electronic

delivery of public services by the Government to all persons to

ensure transparency, efficiency, accountability, accessibility and

reliability in delivery of such services and for matters connected

therewith or incidental thereto.” 

 

The motion was adopted. 

SHRI KAPIL SIBAL: I introduce the Bill.

- - - - 

7224 

Friday, December 23, 2011

Karnataka to soon offer guaranteed land titles through the Urban Property Ownership Records Project

The project, while giving buyers all the information about a property through the Urban Property ownership records database, will also help protect government land

Bangalore: Karnataka will become the first state in the country to provide a state guarantee to urban property titles, albeit only implicitly, when Mysore district issues the first urban property cards later this month.
They will be issued under the Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) project— which surveyed 275,000 properties in the Mysore urban area—that creates a record of the current owner of the property.
Titling is the formalizing of ownership of property, which allows the owner to commercial leverage it; at present, it does not exist in India. Further, unclear titles often lead to violent conflicts and endless litigation.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Electronic Delivery of Services (EDS) Bill, 2011


http://mit.gov.in/content/draft-electronic-delivery-services-bill-2011


1)     Introduction

To speed up the process of delivery of public services to the citizens through electronic mode it is proposed to enact the Electronic Delivery of Services (EDS) Act.

2)     Salient Features of the EDS Bill

a)   The Electronic Delivery of Services Act will mandate provisioning of all public services of all Central and State Government departments compulsorily through electronic means within 5 years from enactment.  

b)   Within 180 days of enactment of the EDS Act, all Departments of Central and State Government will need to identify the list of all public services to be delivered by it through electronic mode.

c)     The Departments will also need to provide details regarding the manner of delivery (how) of these electronic services and their service levels.

d)     It will be ensured that in addition to electronic mode of delivery of services, assisted access to electronic services will also be provided to the citizens.

e)     Departments will create a Grievance Redressal Mechanism for handling complaints regarding non availability of Electronic services or deficiency in delivery of electronic services.

f)    Electronic Service Delivery Commissions will be established at both the Central and State level to oversee the implementation and monitoring of the Act.

g)     The Act provides for penal provisions in case of contravention of the provisions of the EDS Act

3)     Current Status

a)     There has been extensive consultation process over the past 8 months on the EDS Bill, with all Stakeholders including all Central Government Departments, State Governments, Industry, Industry Association, Academia and Civil society.

b)     The EDS Bill was uploaded in the DIT website on 9th February 2011. All subsequent revisions have also been uploaded on the DIT website.

c)     The various suggestions and feedback of the stakeholders have been considered and accordingly the EDS bill has been revised to incorporate these suggestions.

d)     Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India has approved the draft Bill.

e)     It is proposed to introduce the EDS Bill during the winter session of the Parliament

4)     Benefits
The EDS Act Bill will bring about improvement in service delivery and Governance by ensuring legal mandate for delivery of services in electronic mode.
The EDS Bill is hosted at http://mit.gov.in/content/draft-electronic-delivery-services-bill-2011

Friday, October 14, 2011

Delivering services the Kalyan-Dombivli way – Isher Judge Ahluwalia


Below is an article published by Mrs. Isher Judge Ahluwalia on the e-Governance Project in the Kalyan  Dombivali Municipal Corporation.  Some of the factors which impressed her were
a)  Aesthetically designed Citizen Facilitation Centres
b) Ease of service delivery / reduction in time in delivery of services like issue of Birth Certificate, Payment of property taxes, reduction in time for property assesment
c) Integration of different service delivery modules / back end integration
d) Strong bureaucratic leadership
e) Financial sustainability of the Project
Delivering services the Kalyan-Dombivli way – Isher Judge Ahluwalia
For over a decade now, we have taken pride in the great performance of India’s IT sector in the global market for software development and also in the Indian corporate space. But the benefit IT can bring in delivering a variety of public services, what is often called e-governance, has been less in focus in India. The potential from this activity is enormous and it is only just beginning to be realised.
An outstanding example of what IT can do to deliver public services in Indian cities is provided by the e-governance project of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) in Thane district in Maharashtra. The project was conceived in 1999, started implementation in 2002, and is now being replicated across the 231 urban local bodies of Maharashtra. Its lessons are also being incorporated in the mission mode projects of the National e-Governance Action Plan which was launched in 2003.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Principal Secretary e-Governance Shri MN Vidyashankar's interview by egovreach.com



Karnataka has been leading the way in terms of IT software and hardware exports. It has taken a huge leap in e-governance initiatives also and  M. N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka elaborates on the efforts that the state has put in.

Q: Karnataka is one among the few states which has shown proper reciprocation to e-governance call. How would you rate the state’s response to e-governance?

Answer

Karnataka ranked as the “Leader in e-Readiness in the country” by the Department of Information Technology, Government of India. We have several successful e-governance projects which have potential to be replicated in other states. Namely:

Bhoomi : Bhoomi (meaning land) is the project of on-line delivery and management of land records in Karnataka. It provides transparency in land records management with better citizen services and takes discretion away from civil servants at operational levels.

BHOOMI has been operationalised throughout the state. Under BHOOMI 20 million records of land ownership of 6.7 million farmers are computerized in the state.

BHOOMI has reduced the discretion of public officials by introducing provisions for recording a mutation request online. Farmers can now access the database and are empowered to follow up. Now, mutation requests are being handled strictly on a first-come-first-served basis eliminating preferential treatment and discretionary powers of the civil servants.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Shri Ajay Sawhney President and CEO, NeGD presenting on the EDS Bill

Shri Ajay Sawhney, President and CEO NeGD was asked to deliver a presentation on the Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011 as part of the valedictory session on the International Seminar on e-Governance organised by the Industry body ASSOCHAM

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Visit to e-Gram Kendra in Mehsana District

Visited  an e-Grama Kendra of Government of Guajarat in Mehsana District. e-Gram kendras are the Common Service Centres established in Gujarat though the model is different. 

The e-grama kendra was located in a village about 44 kms north of Gandhinagar in Mehsana District. There is a computer, a laser printer , a dot matrix printer and a web cam installed in the e-Gram kendra. The connectivity is provided through a Airtel VSAT connection.  The entire equipment at the e-gram centre is provided by the State Government. The e-gram centre  is run by a village entrepreneur who earns his income through providing services through the e-Gram centre. The Village entrepreneur is selected by the Village Panchayat to run the e-gram kendra.

Currently only land record copies and electricity bill payment services are available through the e-Gram kendra. The e-Gram kendra earns about 700 Rs. through electricity bill collections - about Rs. 5/- per bill which is generated bi monthly and about Rs. 700 through providing copies of land records. 

The entrepreneur earns additional income of Rs. 2000/- or so through providing other services like submitting job applications through the Gujarat Government site ojas.guj.nic.in.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Seetaram Yechuri quotes Electronic Delivery of Services Bill during lokpal debate in Parliament

Seetaram Yechuri - Now, I come to the question of Citizens’ Charter.   Again, we are, actually, talking of it as though this is something new that we have brought about.   There are Right to Services  Act that have been passed by five States in our country already.  They are Bihar, J & K, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.   They  are proposed in  Jharkhand, Kerala and Rajasthan.   I was surprised to see, Sir, -- the hon. Chairman of the relevant  Committee is not here at this moment –the other day, on the Internet,  the  draft Electronics Services Delivery Bill.  It was also written that citizens may send their responses to Abhishek80.gov.in by 4 th  of May, 2011.  It is in the public domain.  In public domain, there is a Bill of 2011 called  Electronic Services Delivery Bill.  The scope of the Bill, actually, says, that  every competent authority of the appropriate Government shall publish (i)all the public services of the Department/Agencies or Body  which have to be delivered through electronic mode – that is the mode that all of us, surely, should move to; this applies to all; then, (ii) the date by which these services shall be made available;  (iii) the manner of delivery of such services and their service levels and this is most important (iv) the grievance redressal mechanism available to  any person  aggrieved about the outcome  of any request made by him for such service...   This is there.   Your Bill is in public domain.  You are discussing it.  I do not know why the Government is not even referring to the fact that this mechanism has already been proposed by this very Government.   You already have a mechanism that you have proposed.  It is there in the public domain.  Either the left hand of the Government does not know what the right hand is doing, or, the Government  itself is not realizing that  what it is, actually, doing.  So, such a mechanism  has already been suggested  by it.   So, if it can be brought into the framework of the Lokpal saying that such a mechanism is there,  very good.  You can bring it. But the point is  that such a mechanism is, absolutely, necessary. 

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Bloomberg article on use of free email accounts by Government of India

Personally , using gmail is more convenient than NIC email, 

The original article is here
===============================================================
Don’t Hit Delete! That Hotmail From India’s Prime Minister May Be For Real
By Mehul Srivastava - Jul 18, 2011
After a triple bombing in Mumbai killed 21 people last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office issued a statement condemning the terrorist attacks -- from a Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Hotmail address.
Singh’s staff’s use of a free e-mail account is typical of most government workers, who log into Hotmail, Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Gmail and Yahoo! Inc.’s e-mail to conduct official business. They also list those addresses on agency websites and business cards.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Land transactions to go online in Karnataka


Five of the 42 sub-registrars in greater Bangalore to start online registration
Documents pertaining to land records of about 1.21 lakh have been ‘corrected'

Tumkur: Karnataka, which pioneered the digitisation of land records in the country through the Bhoomi platform, initiated the first step towards enabling citizens to conduct the registration process online on Friday.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Bhoomi, the digital repository of agricultural land records, Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy unveiled the synchronisation of the platform with Kaveri, the software platform that enables registration of sale of land in Tumkur.
The automation of the mutation process — the process of tracking the history of the sale of a particular piece of land that is identified by a unique Survey Number — will result in greater transparency and reduce the scope for “discretion by government officials,” Mr. Reddy said. “This is a turning point because it will also eliminate touts and middlemen who currently fleece property buyers,” he added.
Mr. Reddy, who travelled by bus with mediapersons from Bangalore to Tumkur, said starting in mid-August five of the 42 sub-registrars in greater Bangalore area would start the process of online registration.
Mr. Reddy said documents pertaining to land records of about 1.21 lakh have been “corrected” for minor errors in the last two years. “This has been a huge relief for farmers,” he said.
A meeting of department officials and other senior officials of other departments held about two weeks ago discussed the suggestion that a “land audit” be conducted to make an accurate estimate of land required for industrial projects, Mr. Reddy said. “A six-million-tonne steel plant in China requires only about 600 acres, so why should investors need much more here?” he asked. Rajeev Chawla, Secretary, Revenue Department, said about two crore records pertaining to land ownership have been built on the Bhoomi platform.

Karnataka farmers will receive SMS alert on progress of land transaction

When 35-year-old Gowramma gave her thumb impression for the online registration of her land in the sub-registrar office of Tumkur on Friday, Karnataka stepped into another chapter in e-governance. Afterwards, Gowramma received an SMS alert on her mobile phone from the revenue department stating that her land transaction deal has gone through.

This happened after the revenue department launched its online integration of Bhoomi (online delivery of rural land records) and Kaveri (Karnataka valuation and e-registration) software on Friday. The project was initiated by revenue minister G Karunakara Reddy in Tumkur. The integration is now done in 25 taluks in phase I and will gradually be extended to all 176 taluks across the state. The integration is aimed at reducing the hardships for farmers.

“The sale transactions will now take place only if the land is identified with a specific survey number. The name of the seller and the extent of transaction will be made available on a database, which the farmers will have access to. This will ensure that there will no fraudulent or bogus transactions in the future,” said the revenue minister.

Once the sale is done, Bhoomi will start mutation process almost on the same day without any data entry of sale transactions, officials said.

“The manual data entry and procedures with the present system takes a lot of time, and the integration system would reduce time consumption by 50%,” said secretary of revenue department (Bhoomi and UPOR) Rajeev Chawla. Now farmers will get an SMS alert in both English and Kannada on all stages of the mutation process.

“All these days, farmers were running from pillar to post to know the status. Now, an SMS alert will be sent to farmers whenever a land transaction is initiated,” he said.

The farmers have to register their mobile numbers with the revenue department or taluk office. Congress leader and MLA from Shira in Tumkur, TB Jayachandra, said that the department should also concentrate on resolving existing problems with the Bhoomi system.

“There are many errors in land records, which the farmers are fed up with. This needs to be addressed,” he said. Reddy said that there was a shortage of surveyors in the state, which is hampering the land transactions. “We will soon recruit 2,000 surveyors to resolve the issue,” he said.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Collector's Daughter attends Village School

In Tamil Nadu govt school where poor kids go, a new face: The Collector’s daughter

Gopu Mohan Posted online: Sun Jun 19 2011, 09:23 hrs
Chennai : Sitting cross-legged on the floor with her classmates, six-year-old Gopika, a student of Class II, slowly traces alphabets on a slate, unaware of the attention she is drawing. She is a new student at the Panchayat Union primary school in Erode, the district where her father is the new Collector.Dr R Anandakumar, the young Collector of this backward district in west Tamil Nadu, enrolled his child in the Tamil-medium government primary school at Kumalankuttai, setting an example for those in the government to patronise the services they deliver to the public.
Last Wednesday, when schools across the state reopened after the summer vacations, headmistress S Rani was poring over admission papers after the morning prayers.
“It was a hectic hour. Many parents were waiting outside to enrol their children. Someone noticed the attire worn by the duffedar (attender) and informed me. To our great surprise, standing in the queue along with other parents was the Collector, his wife M Srividya and daughter.”
His presence created a stir — some teachers thought he was there on an inspection. “We did not expect the Collector to admit his daughter here,” admitted Rani. The district has 1,500 schools including three Central institutions and several private ones.
Of the nearly 250 students in Classes I to V of the school, there are no children of government officials. Even teachers of the school don’t send their children to this Tamil-medium school. Most students there hail from poor families, mostly children of dyeing unit workers, auto drivers, daily wage labourers and weavers who need the free noon meal, uniform and textbooks.
Anandakumar refused to comment, maintaining it was a personal decision, though its impact was felt by the school as a whole.
As soon as it was known that his daughter was studying there, officials of Veerappanchatram Panchayat inspected the school to ensure that it had all basic facilities in place.
For those who know him, Anandakumar’s decision was not surprising. Having studied at a government Tamil-medium school himself, he went on to complete Bachelor of Veterinary Science from the Veterinary College and Research Institute in Namakkal district, and obtained his Master’s degree from the Central Avian Research Institute near Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.
A university gold medallist, Anandakumar started his career as an Assistant Veterinary Surgeon before joining the civil services. He also received a silver medal for land reforms while on training as Assistant Collector in Pudukkottai.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Project National Population Register

Information provided by Deepinder of NeGD
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Here's the latest on Project NPR: 

Apropos NPR Work in Chandigarh, the pre-bid meeting was held on 23-May-2011 at DOEACC Centre, Chandigarh. This was attended by nine agencies. Post meeting, DOEACC issued a notification that can be accessed from


(b) DIT Web site -- www.mit.gov.in/whatsnew -- from the "Bid Process for Engaging MSPs..." link, as well as from the "National Population Register (NPR) Bid Process for the UT of Chandigarh" banner (image attached)

Do visit the facebook page and become a fan by clicking the Like button.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Deputy Commissioner Faridabad, Shri Praveen Kumar cleans toilet of a School

IAS officer cleans school toilet

(May 20, 2011)

  On Thursday afternoon, a rare sight met the eyes of students of Government Girls' Secondary School — a senior IAS officer cleaning their school's toilet. Faridabad Deputy Commissioner  Praveen Kumar, a senior IAS officer, literally cleaned the toilet of the school situated in Old Faridabad.

The deputy commissioner had conducted the inspection of the city's oldest school in the morning. Over 3,000 students study in the school.

At the school, some of the students told him that the school had just one sweeper to clean the toilets. He also came to know that "a few students had fallen unconscious on Wednesday due to the scorching heat".

The officer promised the schoolchildren that he will be back around 1.30pm. He kept his word and came to the school. He also advised the students that they should change their mindsets and focus on doing things themselves.

And he did it by giving his own example — he entered one of the toilets and started cleaning it. It took the officer nearly 20 minutes to clean the toilet thoroughly, leaving dumbstruck the school principal, teachers and students.

"We could not believe that the deputy commissioner cleaned the toilet of our school," said Praveen Kaushik, the school's principal.

"He has set an example and it will have positive a impact on the students," he added.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong in a cleaning toilet of the school," Kumar told Hindustan Times. "I took this step as we shy away from doing things which we can do ourselves."

"I am sure the students will now clean the toilet themselves as there is only one sweeper," Kumar said. The DC also ordered that facilities in the school be revamped so that students do not have to suffer.

Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Additional Secretary DIT being interviewed

Interview of Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Additional Secretary DIT

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Hindu supports the Electronic Service Delivery Bill

Speeding up government

The Electronic Service Delivery Bill, 2011, which aims at delivering all public services to citizens in the electronic mode, is a welcome piece of legislation. By eliminating paperwork on a massive scale, the new measure can cut the red tape and corruption that notoriously plague governance in the country. The draft Bill published by the Ministry of Information Technology at its website is similar to the Right to Information Act, 2005 in that it incorporates a complaints mechanism and prescribes penalties for failure to comply with the provisions. Importantly, it sets a five-year deadline for all public services to make the online transition, with a further concession of three years in some cases. What people can expect in the new dispensation is electronic submission of forms and applications, issue or grant of any licence, permit, certificate, sanction or approval, and receipt or payment of money. No time must be lost in enacting the law, given India's poor record of delivery of citizen services. Moreover, services now facing severe bottlenecks, such as passports, should be prioritised for electronic processing. The draft provisions make it incumbent on the central and State governments to publish a list within six months of the date of enactment, and they would do well to pick the worst-performing departments for inclusion first.

India badly needs a major initiative on electronic service delivery and e-governance. That it has done little to use Information and Communications Technology to help citizens is evident from its 119th rank among 192 countries in the United Nations E-Government Development Index 2010. Although there is no standardised measure of e-governance, the indicators used by the U.N. — online service availability, telecom infrastructure, and human capital — suggest that India is below the world average for the composite index. This underscores the need to get the electronic service delivery law in place urgently and to enforce it seriously. The experience with the RTI Act indicates that public support for modernisation will overwhelm any resistance from vested interests. What must be noted, however, is the continued failure of many government departments to disclose information pro-actively on the Internet, as laid down under the RTI Act. Successful e-government requires that citizens get maximum information, and are able to conduct online transactions and participate in decision-making. All this calls for wide access to online services in the form of kiosks and special centres. Rising India must make progress on each of these metrics, if it hopes to leave its colonial baggage of red tape behind.

Original link here 

http://t.co/u5jY0B8

or  

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article2004253.ece

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Presentation on e-District Project

E-district May 2nd 2011 ppt for discussion.pdf Download this file

Presentation on e-District project shared during the consultative workshop on the National rollout of e-District Project

Professor Subhash Bhatnagar of IIM Ahmedabad comments on the Electronic Service Delivery Bill

Professor Subhash Bhatnagar an authority on e-governance gives his comments on the ESD Bill in his blog here  http://www.subhashbhatnagar.org/2011/05/electronic-service-delivery-bill-2011.html 

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Government Officers on Social Media - WIP

This post is still work in progress, but still decided to publish it as a trial balloon

Aravinds Blog

Arvind Kumar Maharashtra Cardre IAS Officers twitter page

Legal website started by Shri Sandeep Verma

Abhishek Singh's twitter feed

Among the most illustrious members of twitter or twitters ( if there is such a word) would have to be  Mrs Nirupama Rao , Foreign Secretary of India.  With very senior people , one always suspects that their notes / speeches are ghost written by back room staff, however , given the fact that she doesn't tweet so often, most  probably she must be tweeting herself

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Scheme for National Rollout of e-District Mission Mode Project

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure today approved the following proposals :

 Scheme of National Rollout of e-District Mission Mode Project at a cost of Rs 1663.08 crore to be implemented in all 640 districts (including the 41 districts where e-District Pilot Projects have already been initiated) of the country for a period of 4 years.
 Approval for an outlay of Rs 1663.08 crore spread over years 2011-2012 to 2014-2015 with an expenditure of Rs 541.22 crore in the Eleventh Five Year Plan and of Rs 1121.86 crore in the 12th Five Year Plan.
 Approval of constitution of an Empowered Committee for coordinating the implementation of the Project.

Background

National e Governance Plan (NeGP) was approved by the Government in May 2006, with the following vision:

"Make all Government Services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man".

To realize this vision, 27 Central, State and Integrated Mission Mode projects (MMPs) along with 8 support components were identified and approved under NeGP. States have the flexibility to identify upto 5 additional state-specific projects, which are particularly relevant for the economic development of the State. NeGP also envisages creation of the core IT infrastructure in the form of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), State Data Centres (SDCs) State Service Delivery Gateways (SSDGs) and one lakh Front Ends namely Common Services Centres (CSCs), in rural areas across the country to deliver public services electronically.

e-District is one of the 27 MMPs under NeGP, with the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India as the nodal Department, to be implemented by State Government or their designated agencies. The MMP aims at electronic delivery of identified high volume citizen centric services, at such district and sub-district level, which are not part of any other MMP.

The estimated total project cost for the nation-wide rollout of e-District MMP is Rs 1663.08 crore, out of which Government of India's share is estimated to be Rs 1233.08 crore and States' share Rs 430 crore.

Citizens will be able to access Government to Citizen (G2C) services close to their houses through Common Service Centers (CSCs) in an integrated manner. Service delivery of G2C services will be responsive, transparent and accountable at Districts and Sub-District offices.

Citizens will have to travel less distance, make less trips to Government offices and also will have to wait for much less time to get these services delivered to them. Citizen will also be able to track on line the progress of the application/request.

Offices and Sub-Offices of district administration will get modernized and Government processes automated which will ultimately empower the citizens.

*****


SB/SKS
(Release ID :71720)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Electronic Service Delivery Bill

Government of India proposes to enact the Electronic Services Delivery Act that will make it mandatory for all Government Departments of State and Central Government to offer their services in Electronic mode