The eNabled State

The e-Nabled State

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister is going all out to ensure that all official work in his state is done on computers.

E. Kumar Sharma

So, you thought it was just corporate biggies like Reliance Industries and Zee Network that have made plans to wire up the country. Well, think again. If N. Chandrababu Naidu, the savvy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has his way, the entire state, from the city headquarters to the panchayats, will be e-nabled. Quite ambitious really, as Naidu's pet project seeks to automate all official transactions. The aim: to provide a hands-on government. Says Naidu: ''The government is digitising and Web-enabling its databases so that citizens can access information in a convenient and cost-effective manner.''

This is no empty talk. He may be accused of being populist. But when his e-initiative is concerned, Naidu means business. Four citizen-friendly infotech programmes--TWINS, CARD, COMPACT, and Mee Kosam--are already underway in Hyderabad, the state capital. TWINS provides a one-stop shop for 18 services, ranging from issuing licences to paying property-tax. CARD helps register and value real estate. COMPACT stands for the computerisation of commercial taxes. And, Mee Kosam ('For You' in Telugu) gives details about welfare programmes together with information about the functioning of government departments. The modus operandi: use the Net and other infotech systems to create electronic networks at all points of contact between the people and the government.

Even the government departments are getting into the act. The Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, for instance, has no qualms about the Rs 15 crore it has invested since 1995 in its computerisation efforts. Says C. Rama Krishna, 38, Assistant Commissioner: ''Earlier, it used to take us more than a year to cross-check data. Now, we can do so in the same quarter itself.'' Considering that the department has an annual revenue collection of approximately Rs 7,000 crore, it is no mean achievement.

The transport department is also trying its hand at e-administration. It is ready to launch a networked solution for all transport blues. According to the state Infotech Secretary J. Satyanarayana, 45: ''The strategy towards e-governance is to put in place infotech-enablers, creation of departmental committees on infotech, providing the right regulatory regime, and building the infrastructure by leveraging private sector initiative.''

And if the tax and transport departments have done it, the all-important treasury is also in the process of e-nabling itself .So far, all the 23 district treasuries and 300 sub-treasuries of the government have been computerised. ''The AP Technology Services (APTS) is involved in the development of a Resource Expenditure Information System (REINS) software for the finance department which will help the government monitor the Plan and non-Plan budgetary expenditure,'' says APTS Managing Director, Suresh Chanda, 39.

Holding the reins of these initiatives is the Andhra Pradesh State Wide Area Network (APSWAN) project, which provides the connectivity backbone. A 2 Mbps optical-fibre connectivity is already functional between Hyderabad, 23 district headquarters, and the towns of Vijayawada and Tirupati. In existence since November, 1999, the first phase of the network was implemented in a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis by the Bangalore-based United Telecom. Based on TDMA technology, it is currently being used for video conferencing by the Chief Minister and his officials.

Naidu's ultimate gameplan is to link all the departmental heads with their officials at the district level. He then plans to link up the 1,128 mandals and 14,500 villages, and become a totally wired state. ''The process to connect the Local Area Network (LAN) at the heads of departments to the LAN at the secretariat is on, and is likely to be completed in six months,'' says APTS' Chanda.

The caveat? The financial and implementational bottlenecks. The bonanza from Department Of Telecom--its free connectivity--is limited to the district level, and that too till November, 2001. Thereafter, it means an annual outflow of about Rs 10 crore. Besides, there will be the added burden of extending the link to the mandal and the village level, together with the cost of putting up hardware. The World Bank is chipping in with 65 crore.

But just that may not be enough. Officials are non-committal about finances although it seems that the government strategy is to encourage private participation. Says Naidu: ''We intend to encourage the private sector to establish networks and connectivity across the state.'' Plans are also being made to re-orient employees to a cyber world. More so because the AP Value Added Network (APVAN), a 50:50 joint venture conceived in 1997 between the government and a Singapore consortium has nearly been dropped because of employee resistance. Meanwhile, the government has gone ahead and selected 25 CIOs for training. The target: to train 100 CIOs within the next four years. Coupled with this are the attempts to make Telugu the language of implementation of the infotech operations.

Then there is the Andhra Pradesh Development Monitoring System (APDMS),launched in January, 2000. This GIS-based system can combine and create data of various hues, including demography and community infrastructure. For instance, there is the Janmabhoomi programme where 78,000 government employees, 1.22 lakh students, and about 30,000 lecturers, professors, and teachers have collected data under 50 human development indicators from a sample of 18.5 million households. The aim is to feed the data into the supercomputer PARAM which is being installed. Andhra Pradesh wants to move to a situation where all official work is done through computers. ''We are slowly moving towards a paperless office,'' says State Planning Secretary A.K. Parida. The planning department is also starting work on an experimental basis on the Nagarjuna Sagar canal system where satellite images will be used to understand cropping patterns, water usage, and the various nitty-gritties related to agriculture.

These e-initiatives of Andhra Pradesh has made other states sit up and think. ''Other states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka have also taken some measures like this. Nevertheless, in terms of the number of initiatives, Andhra Pradesh is very important as a test-bed for promoting infotech in government,'' says Lt Col. Vijay Kumar, 49, Director (Hyderabad), Software Technology Park Of India (STPI). The Union Ministry of Information Technology is also likely to show its appreciation by giving Andhra Pradesh a grant of Rs 10 crore for its pilot infotech projects. And, more important, the National Institute of Smart Governance (NISG) may be set up in the state.

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