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DecentralizationCommunity

Solution Exchange for DecentralizationSolution Exchange for DecentralizationCommunityCommunityConsolidated ReplyConsolidated Reply

Query: Use of Panchayat Networks, from NIC, New Delhi

(Experiences).Compiled by Alok Srivastava, Resource Person; additional researchby Happy Pant, Research Officer17 February, 2006

Original Query: by M. Moni, National Informatics Centre, New Delhi

Posted 6 February, 2006

Dear Friends,

Information Technology has evolved, in recent years, as an effective tool fordevelopment planning and administration. It cannot be emphasized enough that thepurpose to use IT and the groundwork needed to feed this tool is critical to ensureits successful application.I work with the NIC and am closely involved with the implementation of the DISNIC-

PLAN (seehttp://informatics.nic.in/try_dispnews.asp?newsid=112&module_number=oct_4 )which intends using IT for micro-level planning and implementation of developmentprogrammes, at the panchayat level. The objective of the DISNIC-PLAN is aimed atbuilding databases, decision support systems and communication systems to upgrade the

production potential of villages.

Apart from using the wired panchayat networks for information collection andanalysis, there are many other uses to which these networks can be gainfully put to.

There have been experiences of using such wired and wireless IT networks foreffective communication, development planning and supplying useful information tothe local population.

Could members share their experiences and knowledge regarding efforts madeanywhere in the country by Panchayats who have used these network for theirdevelopment planning and administration requirements?

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Responses were received, with thanks, from:

1. Kris Dev, Life Line To Business, Chennai (Response1) (Response2)(Response 3)

2. Alok Srivastava, UNDP, New Delhi

3. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Department of Information Technology,Government of Maharashtra

4. Ramit Basu, National Social Watch Coalition, New Delhi

5. T R Raghunandan, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, New Delhi

6. Ranjit Kr. Maiti, P&RD Dept, Govt. of West Bengal, Kolkata

7. Barenyo Chowdhury, ORG India, Kolkata

8. Happy Pant, UNDP, New Delhi

9. Surendra N Tripathi, Departments of PR & IT, Govt. of Orissa,Bhubaneswar

10. Charru, IIPA, New Delhi

11. Ashok kumar Paikaray, Mahavir Yubak Sangh, Bhubaneswar

Further contributions are welcome!

Summary of Responses

Citing numerous IT initiatives taken in panchayats and rural areas, contributors havediscussed the potential for using IT networks in panchayats, factors critical for theireffective usage, issues crucial for their sustainability, causes responsible forunfulfilled potential in e-governance at panchayat level, and finally suggestions forrealising it effectively. As explained by members, panchayats have effectively used

their networks to improve their own systems like that for accounting management tospeedier delivery of citizens services.

Members, while giving examples of many successful panchayat IT initiatives, havepointed to a variety of uses that such networks have been put to. Those mentionedare Integrated Fund Monitoring & Accounting System, Gram PanchayatManagement System at panchayat samity and gram panchayat level and a pilotproject under NEGP in Burdwan in West Bengal. (see details) and E-Panchayat inAndhra Pradesh, which provides speedier and more efficient delivery of citizensservices. The National Panchayat Portal (NPP) aims at developing dynamicwebsites for 2,40,000 panchayats in the country, and building national net community of gram panchayats by interlinking them. This would open up many morepossibilities of sharing of IT resources among panchayats.

Apart from the actual uses that panchayat networks have been put to, membershave also given a list of uses that they could be effectively put to. Theseservices/uses range from licensing and no objection certificates for trade, running ofshops and hotels; construction permission, property ownership records &certification, grievance petitions regarding civic services to providing ration cards,pensions etc. through panchayats. It has been pointed out that with back-endcomputerization by government departments/agencies there is a very goodpossibility of integrating their services, viz. agricultural crop guidance, agricultural

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pricing, tele-medicine, Right to Information etc. in the menu of services beingprovided to the villagers to collection of house tax and utility bills, to serving theinformation needs of farmers for cultivation practices, pests and disease control,marketing information on agricultural produce, and auction rates etc.

Benefits and Advantages

In citing the vast range of services that panchayat IT networks are providing (or couldprovide) to the rural populace, respondents have also, inter alia, mentioned the broadbenefits that accompany such projects/initiatives:

Keeping the gram sabha informed through dissemination of agenda,resolutions, voting record etc; circulating proceedings of gram sabhas and actiontaken reports; dissemination of family surveys, property lists, BPL lists, pensions,censuses; data on delivery of services in education, health, water and sanitation;database on panchayat members and staffing details.

Improving the quality, speed and sensitivity of the state deliveryapparatus, enhanced participation of citizens in community affairs, assistance todisadvantaged groups and increased transparency and better governancethrough creative use of IT.

The responses have also brought up a number of factors critical for thesuccessful operation of IT networks and IT-based initiatives:

Projects to be designed to meet real needs, and to provide relevant, timely andauthentic information.

Building financial sustainability in the project (cost sharing Public-PrivatePartnership model being used for CSCs or user charges concept of Gyandootproject are good examples)

Back-end computerisation by government departments/agencies to be integratedwith the panchayat networks to provide relevant content in digital form(attempted through CSCs).

Reliable Internet connectivity upto village level (wireless technologies like WI-FIand WIMAX hold good promise of providing connectivity at affordable cost)

Capacities to operate and maintain the hardware and software skills.

Members have also provided details of IT initiatives in rural areas that may alsofind application, mutatis mutandis in the panchayats. The successful ones mentionedare: Gyandoot in Madhya Pradesh, which have been set up in collaboration withpanchayats, (see more), Samadhan Kendrasat some places in Madhya Pradesh, TamilNadu and Pondicherry. Projects like ITC e-Choupal, Manav Sadhan Vikas Sanstha,Warana Wired Village Project, and internet initiatives such as Coffee Planters Kiosks,ITC project are bringing farmers in the ambit of internet usage, simultaneouslyproviding them useful information and services. An interesting project of theMinistry of Information Technology, to establish Common Service Centres (CSCs) in100000 villages, is on the anvil.

Members have also provided valuable suggestions for tackling difficulties/criticalissues in order to ensure the workability of these IT projects. These includedeveloping state specific models with panchayats participation that are simple, lowon technology and may not be critically dependent on connectivity; backing thesewith strong infrastructural support system. As a positive outcome of the interaction,members have displayed interest in the National Panchayat Portal (know more) andweb-enabled paperless office tool cited by some respondents. A member has comeforward and offered to customize the e-administration solution to suit therequirements of panchayats.

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Quite interestingly, some members have discussed the crucial issues related tomanagement aspect of panchayat e-governance - having a gram panchayatlevel offline timely data capture module; user friendliness through language,authenticity and operators credibility; regular information pooling up and rollingdown, availability of uninterrupted electricity and telecom connection, and hardware

and software O&M support etc. As also mentioned, an important aspect relates tothe building in of financial sustainability in these projects

Various panchayat and rural e-governance initiatives from across the country cited bymembers, which provide good insight into their working and replicability are givenbelow.

Examples

All India

National Panchayat Portal (from TR Raghunandan, Ministry of Panchayati Raj,

New Delhi)The National Panchayat Portal aims at developing dynamic websites for 2,40,000panchayats in the country, and building national net community of grampanchayats by interlinking them. As per envisaged plan states would have the optionto choose scope and sequence on the basis of suggested models, and panchayatswould be selected on priority based on criteria such as regional coverage, mix ofstrong and weak panchayats, availability of infrastructure etc.

Common Service Centres (CSCs) (fromAjay Bhushan Pandey, Department of IT,Government of Maharashtra)Ministry of IT, Government of India is in the process of formulation of a plan toestablish CSCs in 100000 villages in the country. These CSCs, based on Public-Private-Partnership model, would be providing one-stop stop citizen services to

people in villages. Initially several services such as grant of certificates of birth anddeath, caste, and income, land records and collection of house tax and utility billsare proposed to be provided. Later, as and when back-end computerization of variousdepartments/ agencies are done, their services will also be included in the CSCs such as agricultural and crop guidance, agricultural pricing, tele-medicine, RTI etc.

ITC e-Choupal (From Barenyo Chowdhury, ORG India, Kolkata)Launched in June 2000, 'e-Choupal', has already become the largest initiative amongall Internet-based interventions in rural India. It was specifically designed to tacklethe challenges posed by the unique features of Indian agriculture, is an efficientsupply chain aimed at delivering value to its customers around the world on asustainable basis. Read more

Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry

Samadhan Kendra Initiative(fromRamit Basu, National Social Watch Coalition,New Delhi)Samadhan Kendra, though originally set up in few regions of the country by theMinistry of Information Technology, is not a typical state run IT initiative. It has adynamic and user friendly website in the local dialect with all relevant informationthat are of use to the villagers, as Local requirements were taken into consideration.Not only was the assistance through the IT means, but computer education to the

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village youth turned out to be a great boost for the programme to spread to otherareas and villagers coming to know about its efficacy.

Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry

Web-enabled Solution for e-administration (fromKris Dev,Life Line To Business,

Chennai)It is a web enabled, paper-less office tool, using open source tools such as Java, JBossas back-end, all running on Linux in government organizations in the state. It hastransformed the work culture of government organizations as all incoming letters arefirst scanned and digitized to move electronically and attach to e-Files which getinstant approval and outward letters sent. This has improved the service level andcut down the average process time by 50%.

Madhya Pradesh

Gyandoot (from Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Department of IT, Government ofMaharashtra andAlok Srivastava, UNDP)Initiated in Dhar district, Gyandoot is an intranet network under which 20 kiosks

(called soochanalayas) were initially set up in various rural centres. EachSoochanalaya caters to approximately15 Gram Panchayats and about 25-30 villages.Each kiosk would typically serve a population of 20,000-30,000 villagers and be runby a trained operator to provide a range of services for a nominal service charge,thus making information & services freely available and more transparent. See thewebsite at http://gyandoot.nic.in/

Maharashtra

From Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Department of IT, Government of Maharashtra

Warna Wired Village Project, Kolhapur and Sangli DistrictsThe joint project of NIC, Maharashtra government and Warna Cooperative Society

covers a cluster of 70 villages from Kolhapur and 24 villages from Sangli district ofthe state with the objective of serving the information needs of farmers for cultivationpractices, pests and disease control, marketing information and information onprocessing, bill payment position of sugarcane and dairy products. This wide areanetwork has VSAT connectivity and dial-up connections. All villages are linked withthe directorate of marketing in Pune, which facilitates farmers in getting informationon rates of vegetables, fruits and other crops.

Manav Sadhan Vikas Sanstha (MSVS), RajapurIn Rajapur parliamentary constituency, 105 NGOs have been brought under aplatform called MSVS, which translates all government schemes on ruraldevelopment into local languages and makes them available through pamphlets andthe Internet, now available in villages. Internet training centres facilities are provided

for e-commerce applications especially for fishermen in the area who can learn aboutweather patterns, market prices etc

Karnataka

E-Governanace in Bellandur Gram Panchayat (from TR Raghunandan, Ministryof Panchayati Raj, Government of India)Bellandur gram panchayat, made up of five small villages, was the first local body inthe country to have computerized its operations. Bellandur digitized all its landrecords as an initiative taken by the gram panchayat itself. The panchayat put it in its

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own money to buy PCs, and set up the system. Bellandur boasts of a number of ITengineers, as well as a couple of IT companies.

West Bengal

Software for all levels of panchayats (from Ranjit Kr Maiti, P & RD Dept, Kolkata)

E-governance projects are being implemented at panchayat samity and grampanchayat level; examples are Integrated Fund Monitoring & Accounting System,Gram Panchayat Management System and the pilot project under NEGP in Burdwan.Zila parishads have also been included under the accounting software developed forthe panchayat samities and zila parishad within the new accounts rules w.e.f 1st

January 2003. Read about it .

Pondicherry

E-platform for industrial guidance (from Kris Dev, Life Line To Business, Chennai)The e-Platform for the Industrial Guidance Bureau, Govt. of Pondicherry, integrates ona single platform, 19 departments including Panchayats and Municipalities, forgranting time bound clearance for setting-up of industries in Pondicherry, by theDistrict Industries Centre and Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Govt. ofPondicherry. (See more)

Andhra Pradesh

E-panchayat (fromHappy Pant, UNDP, New Delhi)The project introduced IT in village panchayats in various districts of the state forbetter delivery of citizens services through computerization of all the functions ofpanchayats. The project software provides web-based interface to the citizen totransact with gram panchayats through kiosks. E-Panchayat comprises nearly 30main modules for Birth and Death Registrations, House Tax Collections, TradeLicenses, Pensions, Works Monitoring, Financial Accounting; MIS for PanchayatAdministration are being done in the computerized e-Panchayat system.See more

Identified by Happy Pant, Research Officer

Assam

E-SuvidhaThe service is being offered in two blocks-Birsing Jarua and Agomoni-in Dhubri districtof Assam. The citizen-centric services include certified copy of electoral roll, land-holding certificate, income certificate for service holder, and income certificate forfarmers.

Goa

Info Gram

An IT solution that is supposed to cover village panchayat activities such as watersupply, public health, family welfare, sanitation, construction and maintenance ofroads, street lighting, registration of births and deaths, tax collection. Aasthi,Samanya Mahiti, Aashraya (Karnataka): Aasthi is a property tax module for GramPanchayats. Samanya Mahiti is a general information system capturing data on about350 parameters at the habitation level. Aashraya monitors the physical and financialprogress of housing schemes offered by the Rural Housing Corporation. Touch-screenkiosks are being used for information access.

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Kerala

SWIFTSingle Window Interface For Taluks (SWIFT) deals with certificates required for jobs,legal benefits, identities, and so on. As there are about 25 types of certificates issued

from Taluk offices, people can apply for a certificate at a SWIFT counter.

Orissa

PriaSoft The Panchayati Raj Institutions Accounting Software (PriaSoft) is being used tomonitor the accounts of district, block, and village panchayats.

Related Resources

Recommended Documentation

From M Moni, NIC, New Delhi

DISNIC-PLAN (from, New Delhi)http://informatics.nic.in/try_dispnews.asp?newsid=112&module_number=oc

t_4Disnic plan is a NICNET based distributed database for micro-level planning inIndia

Approach paper on Mainstreaming ICT for Grassroots Level Planninghttp://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/resource/res_info_28110502.doc (344KB)

The paper discusses the issue of providing necessary planning and monitoringtool to PRIs.

Integrated e-Platform (from Kris Dev, Life Line To Business, Chennai)http://www.pon.nic.in/open/depts/finance/lgspeech2004.pdf(120 KB)

The e-platform substitutes single window clearance system to speed up theprocess of industrial clearance/ permission for setting up of new industrialunits.

E-governance for panchayats (fromTR Raghunandan, Ministry of PanchayatiRaj, New Delhi)

http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/cr/res17020601.pptThe presentation illustrates ideas on positioning IT as support system for

panchayats explaining the range of services that are provided by them

Integrated Fund Monitoring and Accounting System (IFMS) and GramPanchayat Management System (GPMS) (from Ranjit Kr Maiti, P & RD Dept,Kolkata)http://www.egovawards2006.in/137.%20SDN%20WB%20COMPUTERISATION%20OF%20PANCHAYATS.pdf (89KB)

GPMS was the software developed for Gram Panchayat and IFMS forPanchayat Samiti & Zilla Parisahd to help give a modern direction to servicedelivery by PRIs to stakeholders.

From Alok Srivastava, UNDP

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http://informatics.nic.in/try_dispnews.asp?newsid=112&module_number=oct_4http://informatics.nic.in/try_dispnews.asp?newsid=112&module_number=oct_4http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/resource/res_info_28110502.dochttp://www.pon.nic.in/open/depts/finance/lgspeech2004.pdf%20(120http://www.pon.nic.in/open/depts/finance/lgspeech2004.pdf%20(120http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/cr/res17020601.ppthttp://www.egovawards2006.in/137.%20SDN%20WB%20COMPUTERISATION%20OF%20PANCHAYATS.pdfhttp://www.egovawards2006.in/137.%20SDN%20WB%20COMPUTERISATION%20OF%20PANCHAYATS.pdfhttp://www.egovawards2006.in/137.%20SDN%20WB%20COMPUTERISATION%20OF%20PANCHAYATS.pdfmailto:alok.srivastava@undp.orghttp://informatics.nic.in/try_dispnews.asp?newsid=112&module_number=oct_4http://informatics.nic.in/try_dispnews.asp?newsid=112&module_number=oct_4http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/resource/res_info_28110502.dochttp://www.pon.nic.in/open/depts/finance/lgspeech2004.pdf%20(120http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/cr/res17020601.ppthttp://www.egovawards2006.in/137.%20SDN%20WB%20COMPUTERISATION%20OF%20PANCHAYATS.pdfhttp://www.egovawards2006.in/137.%20SDN%20WB%20COMPUTERISATION%20OF%20PANCHAYATS.pdfmailto:alok.srivastava@undp.org

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E panchayat Initiativehttp://panchayat.nic.in/epanchayat2906.ppt

PPT presentation on the project for delivery of citizen services in the villagesthrough computerization of gram panchayat

Exclusive web portals for gram panchayats News Storyhttp://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/22/stories/2006012213280400.htmThe article talks about the e-bridging exercise between rural and urban

Andhra Pradesh byequipping all gram panchayats in the State with exclusiveweb portals.

From Happy Pant, Research Officer

E-PanchayatSoftware Informationhttp://orissagov.nic.in/panchayat/EPANCHAYAT.pdf(269KB)

Details the software product developed by NIC, Andhra Pradesh taking intoconsideration all the information and knowledge management requirementsin a Gram Panchayat.

E- governance by Kerala panchayathttp://darpg.nic.in/content/upload/EgovExp69.doc (23KB)

Talks about panchayats in Ernakulam adopting e-governance model underdecentralized planning to augment capacities of those involved indecentralized planning programme.

Recommended Organizations

National Informatics Centre (fromM Moni, New Delhi)http://www.nic.in/

NIC is a premier IT organization in India which provides state-of-the-art,solutions for the IT needs of the Government at all levels

Life Line to Business, Chennai (fromKris Dev, Chennai)Contact Kris Dev (krisdev@gmail.com) at B4, Ashok Suparna, 27/12, 3rd Main Road,Kasturiba Nagar, Adyar, Chennai-600020

Life Line to Business is a company that provides e-administration solutionsfo0r paperless office.

National Centre for Human Settlements & Environment, Bhopal (fromRamitBasu, National Social Watch Coalition, New Delhi)http://www.nchse.com/index2.htm Contact: E-5/A, Girish Kunj, Arera Colony, Bhopal, 462016, Ph: 0755-65306, 463731,

277074An NGO working for the cause of environmental protection and developmental aspects,as well as, for the welfare of the needy, poor, the down trodden.

Centre for Ecology and Rural Development, Pondicherry (from Ramit Basu,National Social Watch Coalition, New Delhi)Contact: 46, Second Street, P.R. Gardens, Reddiarpalayam, Pondicherry-605010;Phone: 0413-200908,200733, E-mail: cerd@satyam.net.in.

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http://panchayat.nic.in/epanchayat2906.ppthttp://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/22/stories/2006012213280400.htmmailto:happy.pant@u%20ndp.orghttp://orissagov.nic.in/panchayat/EPANCHAYAT.pdfhttp://darpg.nic.in/content/upload/EgovExp69.dochttp://www.nic.in/mailto:krisdev@gmail.comhttp://www.nchse.com/index2.htmmailto:cerd@satyam.net.inhttp://panchayat.nic.in/epanchayat2906.ppthttp://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/22/stories/2006012213280400.htmmailto:happy.pant@u%20ndp.orghttp://orissagov.nic.in/panchayat/EPANCHAYAT.pdfhttp://darpg.nic.in/content/upload/EgovExp69.dochttp://www.nic.in/mailto:krisdev@gmail.comhttp://www.nchse.com/index2.htmmailto:cerd@satyam.net.in

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CERD is a trust funded by Pondicherry Science Forum to undertakedevelopment activities contributing to science movement's intervention inarea of developmental policy

Centre for Electronic Governance, Ministry of Information and Technology,Govt. of India (From Happy Pant, Research Officer)

http://www.mit.gov.in/eg/locentre.htmWebsite features the Centre for e-governance, set up by MIT, Govt. of India,which showcases applications by IT majors like C-DAC, CMC, IQ Virtuals, MS,NIC & Oracle.

Recommended Websites

National Panchayat Portal (NPP) (from T R Raghunandan, Ministry of PanchayatiRaj, New Delhi)http://panchatat.nic.in

Illustrates the vision of Ministry of Panchayati Raj on linking of all panchayatsto NPP, a software solution framework for managing content for local

governance.

Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India (fromAlok Srivastava,UNDP)http://rural.nic.in/

Website of the Ministry of Rural Development gives details of IT inPanchayats and ICT initiatives in rural areas

From Happy Pant, Research Officer

Website of Ramachandra Puram gram panchayat, Medak district, AndhraPradeshhttp://ekpanch.ap.nic.in/pls/gpwebsitedemo/esuvidha

Provides panchayat & ward members names, downloadable application formspertaining to citizens services as registration of birth/death, house tax,licenses, grievance etc.

Useful web links on e-Governancehttp://www.iitd.ac.in/iceg/links.html

It offers useful links on numerous e-governance reports, best practices guideand provides a picture of status of different e-governance projects in differentstates of India.

Recommended Consolidated RepliesSustainable Agricultural Extension Systems, from ADB, New Delhi

(Comparative experiences)Consolidated Reply (254 KB)This Consolidated Reply posted on the Food & Nutrition Security Communityof Solution Exchange deal with replicable Agricultural Extension models thatcan be sustainable.

Responses in Full

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mailto:happy.pant@u%20ndp.orghttp://www.mit.gov.in/eg/locentre.htmhttp://panchatat.nic.in/mailto:alok.srivastava@undp.orghttp://rural.nic.in/mailto:happy.pant@undp.orghttp://ekpanch.ap.nic.in/pls/gpwebsitedemo/esuvidhahttp://www.iitd.ac.in/iceg/links.htmlhttp://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/food/cr/cr-se-food-19010601.docmailto:happy.pant@u%20ndp.orghttp://www.mit.gov.in/eg/locentre.htmhttp://panchatat.nic.in/mailto:alok.srivastava@undp.orghttp://rural.nic.in/mailto:happy.pant@undp.orghttp://ekpanch.ap.nic.in/pls/gpwebsitedemo/esuvidhahttp://www.iitd.ac.in/iceg/links.htmlhttp://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/food/cr/cr-se-food-19010601.doc

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Enhanced participation in community affairs and governance through creative use ofinformation technology.Implementing a new grass-root entrepreneurial model with participation of groups ofnon-traditional entrepreneurs.

The services offered were:

-Commodity Marketing Information Services. Prices and volumes of the local mandis(markets) of Dhar, Badnawar and Indore as well as principal national agriculturalproduce markets were provided daily. Prices of crops like soybean, wheat, gram andvarious horticulture products were quoted on the site. The local mandi rates andvolumes were quoted in the morning around 11:00 am and at evening around theend of transactions. For other mandis, rates were quoted once a day.-Land Records.Cultivators need land records (khasra) for crop loans from banks. Alllocal banks (Central Cooperative Bank, the Land Development Bank, Bank of India,State Bank of India, Bank of Indore, etc.) accepted the duly issued printouts of landrecords given at Soochanalaya for the purposes of their transactions.-Registration of Applications. Applications for caste, income and domicile (moolnivasi) certificates, demarcations (seemankan) and landholders passbook of land

records and loans (bhoo adhikar evam rin pustika) could be e-mailed. E-mail replywas to be sent to the Soochanalaya on certificate being ready to be picked up.-Public Grievances. Complaints regarding common public grievances could be sentvia Gyandoot with an e-mail reply assured within seven days. Complaints includedwater hand pump disorder, teacher absence, mid-day meal, scholarshipsanction/disbursement, poor seed/fertilizer and employee establishment programmatters (like leave or provident fund sanction) queries.-Hindi E-mail. Paperless Hindi e-mail communication was transacted betweenconnected village level institutions, Block/District offices andPanchayat/Education/Health management information systems (PMIS, EMIS & HMIS).

Gyandoot is one of relatively few e-transparency projects to have made a specificeffort at trying to assist disadvantaged groups. This is seen in the choice of location

(Dhar is a relatively poor, relatively rural district); in the identity of users targeted byinformation and service design; and in the identity of the kiosk operators (who wereselected from disadvantaged groups). In part, some of its identified problems derivefrom and can arguably be offset against its attempt to reach out to the poor.

The factors that spell success/failure for such initiatives are: Need of a Top-levelchampion, Cost sharing, Meeting real citizen needs, Provision of Infrastructure,Avoiding Process delays, and building in Financial sustainability. It is important tofocus on involving communities and sustainability for such projects to succeed in thelong run.

Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Department of Information Technology, Government

of Maharashtra

A number of initiatives have been taken across the country to use IT in the ruralareas for land records, citizen services and agriculture. Some of them are:Warna Wired Village Project:Warna Wired Village Project in Maharashtra covers a cluster of 70 villages fromKolhapur and 24 villages from Sangli district. It is jointly implemented by NIC,Maharashtra government and Warna Cooperative Society. The objective is to serve

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the information needs of farmers for cultivation practices, pests and disease control,marketing information and information on processing, bill payment position ofsugarcane and dairy products. This wide area network (WAN) has VSAT connectivityand dial-up connections. All villages are linked with the directorate of marketing inPune, which facilitates farmers in getting information on rates of vegetables, fruitsand other crops.

Manav Sadhan Vikas Sanstha (MSVS):In Rajapur parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra, 105 non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) have been brought under a platform called Manav Sadhan VikasSanstha (MSVS). MSVS translates all government schemes on rural development intolocal languages and makes them available through pamphlets and the Internet, nowavailable in villages. Internet training centres are being planned with facilities for e-commerce applications especially for fishermen in the area who, like theircounterparts in Pondicherry, can learn about weather patterns, market prices.Gyandoot:

The community-owned 'Gyandoot' project in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh providesthrough Soochanalaya kiosks information on agriculture produce, auction rates, landrecords etc. It is a low cost user-charge-based-services and the expense of running itis being borne by panchayats and the communities.

Coffee Planters Internet KiosksCoffee prices, which are at record 30 year low have prompted ITC to launch a portal(plantersnet.com) for coffee planters that provides prices and market information.

The portal will have Internet booths setup in the 6 12 months time frame to provideinternational coffee prices and market information to coffee growers.

ITCITC launched a project this year to bring the Internet to Indian farmers by setting upkiosks. It plans to spend Rs 10 crore ($2.14 million) on the project. ITC has set upsome 100 Internet kiosks in Madhya Pradesh, the country's soybean bowl besideslaunching a soya portal. ITC's International Business Division deals in feed ingredientssuch as soymeal and rapeseed, foodgrains, coffee and marine products.

Based on these experiences, Ministry of IT, Government of India (GoI) is in theprocess of formulation of a plan to establish Common Service Centres (CSCs) in100000 villages in the country. These CSCs, based on Public-Private-Partnershipmodel, will provide one-stop stop citizen services to people in villages. Initiallyseveral services such as grant of certificates of birth and death, caste, and income,land records and collection of house tax and utility bills are proposed to be provided.Later, as and when back-end computerization of various departments/ agencies aredone, their services will also be included in the CSCs such as agricultural andcrop guidance, agricultural pricing, tele-medicine, Right to Information etc.Using IT for rural community has several challenges. Internet connectivity is a major

issue. As of now, Internet connectivity beyond talukas is unavailable in most places.BSNL and other internet service providers have laid optical fibers mostly upto talukalevels. In the present scenario it is not economically viable to lay optical fiber cablesupto villages because of lack of demand. However, recent advances in the field ofwireless technologies such Wi-FI, WIMAX etc hold good promises for extendingconnectivity upto the villages at an affordable rates. It is expected that just like cellphones have reached rural India, wireless broadband too will emerge as a viablesolution for rural connectivity.

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The other challenge is content. Even if we provide connectivity to the villages, whatwill the villagers use the kiosk for? If the content that should come from the variousdepartments and agencies are not ready in digital form, then usage of such kioskswill be very limited. Therefore, while efforts are being made to provide internetconnectivity to villages, it is necessary that departments and agencies which aim atproviding services through these CSCs should in parallel work on back-end

computerization and developing contents.

Ramit Basu, National Social Watch Coalition, New Delhi

Analogous to the 'Gyandoot' project in MP which has been quoted by Alok, I wouldrefer to the Samadhan Kendra initiatives originally set up by the Ministry ofInformation Technology through development agencies in few regions of the countrylike MP, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry.

The Samadhan Kendra had a website of its own in the local dialect with all relevantinformation that are of use to the villagers. Very much like that with the Gyandoot,but Samadhan Kendra had a certain degree of autonomy of making its website more

dynamic and user friendly as it was not a typical state run IT initiative. Localrequirements were taken into consideration.Not only was the assistance through the IT means, but computer education to thevillage youth turned out to be a great boost for the programme to spread to otherareas and villagers coming to know about its efficacy. It becomes very important toundertake computer related awareness in backward areas and to convince peopleabout its advantages which help in creating further awareness. Further details canbe obtained from Dr. D.P. Singh or Dr. Krishnakant from the Ministry of Information

Technology, or from National Centre for Human Settlements & Environment, Bhopal;CERD Pondicherry.In fact connecting the panchayats can only be possible when there is a strongsupport of infrastructure at that level with block and district level connectivity or elsethe utility will be wasted as has happened in some regions.

The corDECT technology developed by IIT Chennai and n-logue communicationsystems Chennai has been found useful in a couple of circumstances.

T R Raghunandan, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, New Delhi

There are several very useful paper-less and less paper solutions that are being usedin various government environments, but I do not know of any that are operational inthe Panchayat context. Unfortunately, most Panchayat e-governance initiatives areeither spontaneously generated by one or the other Panchayat, (for example,Bellandur Gram Panchayat in Karnataka and Panchayats in West Bengal) or systemsdesigned by outside agencies, for what we think, is important for Panchayats. Thelatter kind of projects are done in the name of Panchayats, and not for them. Theunfulfilled potential of Panchayat e-governance continues because we do not sit downwith them and design a project specifically for their use (this has to be a statespecific exercise). Most of the e-governance solutions for Panchayats have to besimple, low on technology and may not (as opposed to the popular impression)depend critically on connectivity.

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I have a small presentation on E-governance for Panchayats (it can be viewed athttp://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/cr/res17020601.ppt). Members mightfind it useful; I would particularly suggest slides number 5 to 7, which explain therange of services that are provided by most gram Panchayats - these would be thesubject of paperless solutions. It would be great if any of the members can work onpaperless solutions for Panchayats - maybe we can pilot it in some willing State.

Kris Dev, Life Line To Business, Chennai

Response 2

I refer to my previous reply wherein I had mentioned an e-administration paperlesscommunication solution developed by us. In response to Mr. Raghunandans reply Iwould like to offer to customize the e-administration solution to suit the requirementsof panchayats.

Ranjit Kr. Maiti, P&RD Dept, Govt. of West Bengal, Kolkata

In West Bengal we are implementing e-Gov projects at Panchayat Samiti (PS) andGram Panchayat (GP) level. We have covered 60 Panchayat Samities for IntegratedFund Monitoring and Accounting System and set up Gram Panchayat ManagementSystem in 144 GPs. Besides we have already covered 14 Zilla Parishads out of 18 forthe Accounting software developed both for the PS and ZP within the New AccountsRules w.e.f. 1.4.2003.Some of the other initiatives in e-governance at the panchayat level are:

Recently under National e-Governance Programme (NeGP) a pilot project isgoing on in Burdwan district which will cover 31 PS, 277 GPs of that districtwith connectivity up to GPs under West Bengal State Wide Area Network

(WBSWAN). Under NEGP all the PSs are to be connected by 31st Dec 2006. Citizen Service Centres are being piloted in 13 GPs of 6 districts for testing the

contents and also to assess the needs of the people so that we can customisethe content according to the needs. The CSCs are to deliver services ofvarious categories but this will be a continuous one depending on the needs ofthe people and also on the connectivity.

The softwares developed for the GPs covers public services like Birth andDeath Certificates, Trade certificates, Assessment of taxes- collection thereof,Annual plan, General information about the GP areas,

If you would like to have a look into our softwares so far developed for GP, PS and ZP,we can send you the synoptic views for information.

Barenyo Chowdhury, ORG India, Kolkata

Thanks for sharing the excellent model of national panchayat portal, but could youshare with us the revenue model which would possibly be required for sustenance.My concern is that these should not become static web pages.

Number of visits to a site is decided by the relevance and timeliness of theinformation. For e-governance the authenticity of the information is of paramount

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importance to the users. Hence data collation and uploading are two very crucialissues which have a recurring cost attached. A self funded / financed revenue modelwould perhaps be better than the proliferation of Information Technology horizon withonly technology and very little information.For example, population figures in the district portals of NIC selectively still use 1991,

2001 (provisional) and 2001 (final) data, using the most recent data when the sitewas created. This is an information updation lethargy one would notice on corporate,voluntary and government sites also (lest we blame government alone). Would it notbe pertinent to have a GP level offline timely data capture module to ensure"information" availability first, as annual audits of the GPs are not always undertaken,here too there may be information lag coupled with lethargy. Technology andconnectivity are controllable problem.

The other issues to be reviewed for obtaining the economies of scale and costoptimisation:

Regular information pooling up and rolling down (access and security)

Availability of infrastructural support (uninterrupted electricity & telecomconnection)

Availability of Hardware & software skills for operation & maintenance User friendliness (language, authenticity & availability of the hardcopy,

operators credibility)

I am sure such beginnings would lead to experiences similar to a VSNL / BSNL,actively perusing retail sales (both once monolith you are in queue supplyprovider). Soon perhaps a franchisee of NPP powered by NIC (a powerhousealready) would be a rural household name (like ITC e-chaupal) providing authentice-governance support with a how may I help you smile when a villager visits afterhis days work, avoiding to walk couple of hours to the block office next day forinformation on employment under NREGA as an alternative to the local labourcontractor.

Happy Pant, UNDP, New Delhi

Members may be aware about the E-panchayat project of the Department ofPanchayati Raj & Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh. The projectconceptualized with a view to introducing IT in village panchayats is implemented inseveral panchayats in various districts of the state for better delivery of citizensservices in villages through computerization of all the functions of panchayats. Theproject software provides web-based interface to the citizen to transact with grampanchayats through kiosks. E-Panchayat comprises nearly 30 main modules in linewith the sectoral functions of the gram panchayats to facilitate provision of severalinformation services. Internet based services for Birth and Death Registrations, House

Tax Assessment Collections, Trade Licenses, Old Age Pensions, Works Monitoring,Financial Accounting; MIS for Panchayat Administration are being executed in thecomputerized e-Panchayat system.

As part of the nationwide rollout plan, pilots are planned in other states as well.

Surendra N Tripathi, Departments of Panchayati Raj & InformationTechnology, Govt. of Orissa, Bhubaneswar

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The e-panchayat module developed by NIC Hyderabad (Dr. Prabhu) is a uniqueproject and needs immediate replication. In fact in Orissa we are trying to implementit in all the panchayats of two blocks (Phiringia and Bangriposi). UNDP is prepared tohelp gram panchayats with a computer knowing animator for about 6 months.

The only problem with this web-enabled Linux-Oracle based application is conversion

in local language. In fact the Ministry of Panchayati Raj can come to the rescue ofGram Panchayats on the model of NPP.

Charru, IIPA, New DelhiIts good to see so many members keen on rural e-Gov. Some points on the subject:1. In fact, apart from UN bodies, introduction of e-governance in Panchayats isproposed to be introduced in Mission Mode Projects, by Govt. of India, wherein focuswould be on building up the capacity and capability of the PRIs.2. Yes, Mr. SN Tripathi is correct about the need of support in local language support

as in National Panchayat Portal. Ministry of Communication and InformationTechnology (MCIT) has a separate group dedicated to this, may be called NLP (NaturalLanguage Processing).3. Going by their recent media claims, the details of this NPP model is that NIC hasalready designed and is about to launch a consolidated single National PanchayatPortal(NPP) to house details/information for all(which are a part of NPP) the two andhalf lakh Panchayats of India and other related institutions/governmentdepartments. NPP is supposed to have UNICODE basedmulti-lingual support, content management support and would enable citizen-2-citizen (C2C) and govt. to govt. (G2G) interactions, apart from conventional G2Cinteractions.

4. As already pointed out, apart from Orissa, Kerala and AP have already starteduploading (putting up) their details on NPP.5. Apart from this interesting intiative of NPP, under a Rs. 1000 crore budget,Panchayati Raj Ministry has also decided to provide 2.4 lakh panchayats withcomputers to interlink them with each other as well as with NPP. Interesting ...andhopefully a precursor to more such successful stories.

Kris Dev, Life Line to Business Ltd., Chennai

The 'e-Administration', web enabled, platform neutral, Less Paper Office Tool,developed using Java, Jboss, PG SQL as backend, all running on Linux, has a FCK

Editor and any language can be integrated in the tool easily.

Tamil Font has been installed in the server and can be accessed from any client.Presently they are using Tamil in a local Govt. organization. Similarly, other languagestoo can be integrated.

This could be of interest to some members.

Ashok kumar Paikaray, Mahavir Yubak Sangh, Bhubaneswar

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The implementation of e-Panchayat module in two blocks with support from UNDP isencouraging. We may take care about the use of local vernacular in the aboveprogramme.

Many thanks to all who contributed to this query!If you have further information to share on this topic, please send it to Solution

Exchange for the Decentralization Community in India atse-decn@solutionexchange-un.net.in with the subject reading Re: [se-decn] Query: Use of Panchayat Networks,

from NIC,New Delhi (Experiences). Additional Reply

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