There is a quiet revolution taking place in many of India?s states. Computerisation is slowly creeping in. Its pace can be much faster, but it is happening nevertheless. Which is why it was quite incredible when the Samajwadi party announced its election manifesto in April this year: it spoke of reducing the use of computers to generate more jobs! Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav also vowed to abolish ?expensive education in English?. Sure enough, he backtracked very soon and claimed that he was not against computers or English. Remember even Laloo Prasad Yadav used to be sceptical about the benefits of information technology. He might have changed his mind later.
According to a new survey by TCS, 71% of students in Indian metropolitan areas say they use personal computers. And 66% of students in Bangalore say they are active on blogging and social networking sites, compared with 39% nationally. The survey of nearly 14,000 kids studying in English-medium schools in 12 major cities in
India shows schoolchildren have embraced technology and the Internet, with Google and Wikipedia overtaking the library as the most trusted source of information. Some 63% of children surveyed said they spent more than an hour each day on the Internet; 41% of schoolchildren surveyed chose Google as a source of information, while 46% said they use online sources to access news. The politicians who belong to the 20th century will realise sooner than later that young people in semi-urban places and villages are no different from their city-bred counterparts.
In fact the countryside is embracing computerisation with great fervour. Says PWC Davidar, secretary, Information Technology in Tamil Nadu: ?We are working on applications which will benefit the common man? We need a proper base for e-governance applications. We have a fully functioning state data centre of our own. With the central government releasing more funds for e-governance, we can function effectively for many more years. We have two mainframes in place. The Tamil Nadu statewide area network (TNSWAN) is one among the core e-government infrastructures to create government to government and government to citizen initiatives.?
With the arrival of worldwide web (which is only 20 years old), many governments started deploying IT in the nineties. This powerful tool suddenly made governments think about good governance. IT-enabled governance would make efficiency, transparency, accountability and citizen-orientation possible. Take the case of Tamil Nadu?s TNSWAN network which has two-tier architecture. Tier 1 is from state to district level and Tier2 is from district headquarters to the revenue division. TNSWAN interconnects the state headquarters with district headquarters and each district headquarter with block headquarters using the 2Mbps free bandwidth availed from public private communication providers. The total number of points of presence of the network is 708. Very soon the state government is planning to launch tools of e-governance in several areas through TNSWAN. This will enable people to access information on land records (an area in which Tamil Nadu has lagged behind), transport facilities, encumbrance certificates, municipal services and food and civil supplies from any part of the state.
The state is launching its programme in five handpicked e-districts. ?Once we figure out what all services can be rolled out, we will go to all the 30 districts,? says Davidar. The IT department has identified 124 services that will have maximum impact on the people, and has picked 62 out of them. ?There are two stages, AS IS and TO BE. The AS IS stage has been completed. We are developing applications for revenue, OBC, SC and social welfare departments. We have big plans for agriculture. We want to give information on fertiliser application, new equipment, sudden pest attacks, weather forecasts and so on. We have e-teams in each place. The ownership is with each department,? says Davidar. A team of committed bureaucrats (yes, they do exist) from various departments are working on several initiatives and the IT minister Dr Poongothai is fully supportive and wants to speed things up. ?In four months hopefully you will see the results of our work,? says Davidar.
The state has been working closely with the big names in the business like TCS, Wipro and HCL. Says a computer industry professional, ?Actually the computerisation programmes in most states are bureaucrat driven. Politicians who understand the benefits don?t stand in their way now. Chandrababu Naidu was the exception those days.? Andhra has taken many steps forward in e-governance thanks to the former CM. Karnataka is also way ahead of many other states. The Infosys foundation helped the state undertake many e-governance initiatives. Surprisingly, UP is also going ahead with many programmes.
Sadly, they all get over-shadowed by the political atmosphere in the state and squabbles over statues.
How many people are aware that Chhattisgarh bagged three out of the four e-governance awards declared by the Computer Society of India and Nihilant India for 2007-08. Chhattisgarh pipped states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Goa to be declared the best e-governed state. The state?s food department was declared the ?best e-governed department? while its e-procurement project had topped in the ?best e-governed project? category. Gujarat was the recipient of best e-governed state award for the previous two years.
Tamil Nadu, which takes pride in being one of the most tech savvy states in the country, has some more catching up to do. ?We are moving forward step by step. Giving information on the web is easy. But to devise applications to benefit the common man is our challenge. We?ll get there soon,? says Davidar