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TOWARD A STRATEGY FOR GROUND-UPWARDMODERNIZATION OF INDIA’S STATISTICAL

SYSTEM

(Report on a Field Trip toTamil Nadu and Pondicherry UT, India)

Michael Ward (DEC) and Paul Armington (AFR)September 1998

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. REFLECTIONS ON VISITS WITH COMMUNITIES IN TAMIL NADU ANDPONDICHERRY, UT 2

II. MEETINGS WITH OFFICIALS IN CHENNAI 8

III. MEETING WITH DISTRICT OFFICIALS (KANCHEEPURAM, TAMIL NADU) 10

IV. PLANS FOR EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF CLIC 12

A. Tamil Nadu 12

B. Pondicherry UK 16

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I. Reflections on Visits with Communities in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, UT

1. Michael Ward and Paul Armington (hereafter, The Team) paid a visit to KancheepuramDistrict, Tamil Nadu, on September 18, 1998, where they held discussions with officials of theDistrict Capital (Kancheepuram) and in two blocks of this district as well as in one villagepanchayat, respectively, in each of these blocks. The Team expressed sincere gratitude to thesedistrict, block and panchayat leaders and to the citizens of the communities who came to see,listen and voice their concerns. The Team wished it could have stayed longer, to get to knowtheir situations better. It was “SRO” (Standing Room Only) in the panchayat meetings, withlively interactions and discussions of local needs and issues. The Team’s overall impression wasone of enthusiasm for the idea of Culture, Library, and Information Centers (CLIC), asdocumented in the appended list of references (Attachment 2). Panchayat members felt that CLICshould be implemented as fast as possible by their village panchayat leaders (who aredemocratically-elected governing officers, led by the Panchayat President and Council personsrepresenting the different wards of the panchayat). A few days later (September 21) The Teamhad a similar experience visiting community-level organizations in Pondicherry Union Territory.

2. The logic of CLIC, as a tool for long-range economic and social enablement anddevelopment, exactly fits the needs and demands of the village panchayats. Equally, it meets thepractical needs of the district and block statistical officers for a nodal data agency operating at“ground” level” in a “modernised system” for data collection in India. The Department ofStatistics, Government of India, is presently preparing with the World Bank a “StatisticalSystems Modernization Project”. (The field trip was a part of this preparation.) The concept ofthe role of the public statistical organisation as nodal -- horizontal (as a service function to lineministries and to the private sector) and vertical (as a transmission belt for public informationfrom the elementary data gathering points to the top of Government of India and to the World --can be readily developed with a strategic focus on the CLIC. More specifically, the nodalfunction of CLIC in the horizontal dimension is analogous to the present nodal function of thedistrict, state and federal statistical offices, working at their respective levels of Government.However, this horizontal dimension currently lacks a clearly defined linkage structure, which isa related problem to be addressed by any comprehensive effort to modernize India’s statisticalsystem.

3. The Team finds that this horizontal function of CLIC, particularly the provision of dataservices to line ministries operating at panchayat level, is likely to be well received by allpersonnel concerned with data gathering in the village panchayat. This proposed new system fororganizing and mobilizing data will raise the productivity of these line agencies while improvingthe quality (reliability, relevance, accuracy and timelines) of information that is available quicklyand continuously to all. By centralizing routine data processing, storage and access functions inthe CLIC, the new centers should cut the costs of data gathering now carried by line ministrieswithout reducing the authority and ability of each line ministry to set and manage the range andquality of “its” data. In short, CLIC will provide consistent incentives for all the agentsconcerned with the gathering, organizing, and sharing of elementary data (“facts”) about thecommunity.

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4. The concept of a nodal statistical function at community level determines the broadfeatures of the tools – both organizational and technical – required to implement the CLICconcept. The Team finds that the organizational tools that are needed already exist at villagepanchayat level in Kancheepuram District (Tamil Nadu), as well as in Pondicherry. The priorsocial capital needed for well-led participatory action is already in place and anxious to be put togood use. Similarly, the technical infrastructure (safe buildings, utilities, connectivity) that arealso essential already exist in the panchayats visited in Kancheepuram and in the communevisited in Pondicherry. Basic capacities in the area of human capital (literacy, numeracy,computer awareness, training and learning capacity, leadership capacity and trust) seem to be inample supply. The motivation is certainly there. However, practical training in all aspects ofoffice technology will be needed, from novice level upward. Nothing more than pens and ledgerbooks are presently being used in the village offices that the Team visited, and practicalknowledge of modern methods of knowledge management is non-existent in the communities.In block-level administrative offices in Tamil Nadu, the technical resources of equipment andskills appear to be hardly higher than in the village panchayat offices. So village panchayatsmust look to the statistical office in Kacheepuram (the District Capital) for training in the use andmaintenance of office equipment.

5. The present role of the Block Development Office (BDO) in Tamil Nadu is essentially theadministration of social funds for programs cascading down the line from federal and State levelsof government through the District Rural Development Agencies (RDAs). The BDOs need, butare not presently getting, good local-area statistics to inform their policies and decisionsregarding their use of, and qualification for, funds and program opportunities afforded to themthrough India’s hierarchical system of RDAs and Planning & Development Departments. BDOsare thus key stakeholders of CLIC. They will be the first-line beneficiaries of data gathered andorganised electronically at panchayat level. They also have a critical role to play in planning andco-ordinating the support for the CLIC system within the given block, in collaboration with theDistrict RDA and the other line ministries operating at block level. Also, BDOs will help CLICto articulate their common data needs for development planning purposes and for use of DRDAfunds. The equipping and training of BDO administrative offices, so that they are technicallyharmonized with CLIC and with District Statistical Offices, is therefore an early imperative.Projects to accomplish this can be formulated by and initiated by BDO leaders, and funded by theDRDA, once the required guidelines on choices of technology and IT providers are availablefrom the District Statistical Office. The State and District Statistical Offices must take the leadin setting guidelines for harmonious development of IT systems (hardware and software) at blockand village panchayat levels.

6. CLIC (and BDO) in Kancheepuram will look to the Statistical Office in the District Capitalfor leadership in all the necessary areas of technology architecture. In Pondicherry, the UTStatistical Office will play a similar role. Over the long run, this will involve a continuousprocess of choosing among options for hardware, software, connectivity, and sources of technicalservices (training, problem-solving and maintenance). The District Statistical Office willinterpret panchayat needs for equipment and training through the advice that it gives to the StateStatistical Office in Chennai, which itself will work with the National Informatics Center (NIC)

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to design, implement and update the appropriate IT architecture of Tamil Nadu’s “modernized”statistical system.

7. CLIC in Tamil Nadu will depend also on both the BDO (for first-line specific direction)and the District Statistical Offices for relevant training in management, office organisation, andbusiness practices, particularly budgeting and accounting. In Pondicherry, the UT StatisticalOffice will provide these services to CLIC.

8. CLIC in Kancheepuram will look to the District Statistical Office (and indirectly to theState and Federal Offices) for guidance on statistical concepts, definitions, sources, methods andstandards. Moreover, the credibility of all CLIC data throughout India (and the world) willultimately depend on the use of the data in the communities that originate them. The acceptanceof data collected locally to serve local purposes provides an important validation check oninherent quality, as seen in the context of development programming, implementation, andevaluation. The Team found easy recognition of this fact in its discussions with officials. Thislocal use of local data ultimately depends on the role of the District Statistical Offices (supportedby the nodal agencies above them) in affording quality assurance to the CLIC. This “QA” role iscomprised of:

a) checking and validating the elementary datab) investigating likely errorsc) integrating related data sets for purposes of aggregation and comparison, andd) running consistency checks on the aggregated data before they are made available to line

ministries and the State (or upper level) Statistical Office.

9. In short, the District Statistical Office is the first major node of the statistical system aboveCLIC in the large states of India (see the schematic following). As such, it has the key role toplay in assuring the quality of the CLIC data for the benefit of all users, public and private, underthe general guidance of the integral nodes at state and federal levels. Therefore, beefing up thecapacities and resources of District Statistical Offices must be a vital component of the overallmodernization of the statistical system in India. The need categories here include IT andconnectivity, vehicles for field work (perhaps including mobile-office capability), air-conditioning for offices, education and training of district staff in their new roles of CLICsupport, and the training of block-level Statistical Inspectors as trainers of CLIC Directors.

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Schematic for the Overall Modernization of the Statistical System for BetterSocio-Economic Development in India

INFORMATION FLOWS AFTER BUILDING CLIC

Key: Arrows show main direction of flow of information. l Main statistical nodes

• Minor statistical nodes

Levels ofGovernance

Planning and RuralDevelopment

“Nodal” StatisticalSystem

Sector Activities &Ministries

UN STATUN family of agencies

All India DS

SSO

State

RSORegion

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BSO

Block ×

Village Panchayat or CLIC

Comparable “MU”

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Schematic for the Overall Modernization of the Statistical System for BetterSocio-Economic Development in India

PRESENT INFORMATION FLOWS (BEFORE CLIC)

Key: Arrows show main direction of flow of information. l Main statistical nodes l Minor statistical nodes

Levels ofGovernance

Planning and RuralDevelopment

“Nodal” StatisticalSystem

Sector Activities &Ministries

UNSTAT

All India DS

State SSO

Region RSO

District DSO

Block BSO

Village Panchayat Panchayat

Office

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II. Meetings with officials in Chennai

10. In its opening meeting with senior-level Tamil Nadu officials (see list of participants andprogram of discussion, Attachment 1), the Team presented its arguments for establishing Culture,Library and Information Centres (CLIC) in Tamil Nadu on an experimental basis. The meetingwas chaired by P. Sukavaneswar, Member Secretary of the State Planning Commission. R.L.Narasimhan (CSO, Government of India) accompanied the Team and made the case for CLIC asperceived by the Department of Statistics (DS) in Delhi.

11. The choice of Tamil Nadu (a state about the size of France in population) for experimentalpilot testing was a decision made before the trip in consultation with both Indian Governmentofficials and local World Bank experts. It was based on consideration of the State’s good recordin effective planning and its reputation for running a well-organized administration. The Statewas known to have a well-established rural development operation and a network of local datainitiatives taken by the Director of Economics and Statistics, Dr. R. Baskaran. The Bank hadthus requested the Department of Statistics in Delhi and the State Statistical Office to arrange avisit to selected village panchayats, blocks and a district office in the State, to see how a localinformation center could be set up and function effectively. The Team was anxious to stress,however, that this proposed innovation, eventually involving a large number of units, would notadd another layer of bureaucracy and administrative burden on the people by extending the civilservice downwards from block level.

12. There was general support for the ideas placed on the table: for the view thatstrengthening the two-way process of information exchange, as well as giving stronger voice tolocal interests and concerns, would serve to improve the nature of understanding and speed upthe development process. However, the Director of the Rural Development Department, R.C.Panda, was anxious for the Team to consider whether it was the block BDO or village panchayatthat would serve as the basic nodal point for data collection and use at “ground” level. Theformer would be in a better position to harmonize cross-cutting interests and strengthen inter-linkages between government departments, and thus, through the cross-fertilization ofinformation, help the separate village-level communities to improve their situations.

13. Dr. Panda felt there was evidence that some community based organizations were not veryeffective in articulating the real needs of local people and in involving them in the process ofchange, even where there was pro-forma community participation. He did not want community-level information centers to become cemeteries and depositories for “dead numbers”. (A similarconcern was expressed to the Team later by Dr. Vinay Lall, Director of the Society forDevelopment Studies in India, who argued that all local data gathered should be continuouslytested for its analytical rigor and relevance.) The RDA would nonetheless welcome CLIC if ithelped reduce costs and contributed effectively to genuine and sustainable development in thevillages. Dr. Panda identified the outstanding practical questions to resolve, including where tolocate such centers (specifically, for the trial experiment), how to manage them on a continuousbasis, how to train people to run and maintain the centers, how to keep people involved anddemonstrate to them how information could serve their purposes, how and where to drawtogether all the disparate pieces of information that would emerge and to pool them from various

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projects and other sources so as to serve a common purpose. The Team undertook to look intothese matters.

14. On its return to Chennai five days later, the Team reported its findings to a similar group ata closing meeting, this time chaired by Dr. Panda. Both the introductory and closing meetingswere attended by Dr. P. Prabakanan, Secretary, Planning and Development Department, whotook a keen interest and guided the fieldwork. The meeting welcomed the reports provided andbroadly agreed with the Team’s main conclusion that the statistical node at “ground” level shouldbe within, and report to, the village panchayat government (or its counterpart management unitsin towns and metropolitan areas). The Chairman sought clarity on the distinction between the“arial experiment” that the Team hopes to implement quickly with some form of institutionaldevelopment fund support, and the Pilot Test Program itself, which would eventually belaunched in Tamil Nadu under a lending program of much larger and longer scope. Mr. Pandaexpressed his concern that these initiatives should not be disconnected from the core, area-development strategy for Tamil Nadu and thus end up like several other previous experimentsthat had just faded away. He believed, nevertheless, that this was the right time and right climatein which to launch CLIC in Tamil Nadu. To ensure full acceptance across the leading organs ofState Government, it would be highly desirable to prepare a comprehensive concept paper forTamil Nadu, indicating where the State fitted into the picture, what types of investment in theshape of hardware, software and other physical equipment would be necessary, what trainingwould be required, and so on. This concept paper should show how CLIC would make thedecision-making process both simpler and better informed, and facilitate the utilization of inputsfrom departments like Rural Development.

15. In the selection of Management Units (MUs) to take part in the initial experiments, thecost and effectiveness of IT installation emerged as a key constraint and led to a decision in themeeting to focus attention on one representative District, Kancheepuram, and a limited numberof blocks designated from a properly stratified sample of rural, town, and metropolitan areas.There should be an outreach to all constituent panchayats in each of these designated blocks. Itwould be desirable to cover urban (municipal) blocks first, since there the technology could beinstalled most quickly and easily. Using this experience, the experiment would then be extendedto the designated rural blocks. The Team indicated that the most likely funding source to assistthe “arial experiment” in Tamil Nadu would cover some 200 MUs, or about 30 percent of theMUs in Kancheeparam District.

16. Agreed notes on this closing meeting will be prepared and distributed after furtherconsultations with the Chief Secretary and Member Secretary for the State PlanningCommission, Tamil Nadu.

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III. Meeting with District Officials (Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu)

17. The field visit out of Chennai started with a meeting with senior officials ofKancheepuram District on September 18, 1998. It was chaired by the District Collector, who isthe presiding administrative authority. The meeting was attended by some 30 District officialsrepresenting various line ministries and other agencies of district government. Kancheepuram isone of the 29 districts in Tamil Nadu. It has a population of some 2.5 million. There are sixMunicipalities, 13 Panchayat Unions, 28 Town Panchayats and 649 Village Panchayats.

18. In his opening address, the District Collector reported that, while not all infrastructurefacilities were in place throughout the District, key services like water and electricity wereavailable to the majority of panchayats and that a high percentage of the population had receivedsome primary-level education. He felt the situation was favourable to the establishment of amore efficient process of information exchange that would enhance the role of villagers andincrease their participation in the decisions that affected them. He expressed his belief thatvillagers knew the value of information, in both its knowledge and advocacy functions, and that,with training, villagers would have the capacity to manage modern IT facilities as well as be ableto find the necessary physical and financial resources to maintain and sustain these facilities.Thus, information would strengthen the role of representativity and expand local capacity to raiseincome and wealth as well as to share it. The Team reflected that Amartya Sen’s “beings anddoings” (as opposed to increasing the output of material things) become the driving values in thisvillage setting.

19. The District Collector emphasised the specific importance of:

a) Participatory learning and appraisalb) Identifying potential beneficiaries who are worthy, i.e. who qualify for support, or who

have declared their preference for the provision of certain facilities and services for theircommunity

c) Sharing information and making this process transparent to the local communityd) Checking the implementation of decisions and actions taken at the grass roots level, if

necessary through local ‘watch-keepers’e) Applying non-income parameters for poverty assessment, including risk factors and

vulnerabilityf) Having some indicators of implementation and performance for centrally-financed

programmes

20. The development process, the Team said, was based on trust, which was essential forstrengthening the role of civil society in development. Partnerships were required to pushforward the agenda for improved well-being at the household level. The Team’s notion that theprovision of facilities to promote development was not a privilege, but a fundamental right ofcitizens, was clearly shared by District officials attending this meeting.

21. The team also noted that the idea of CLIC (local development through the establishment ofmore localised information centers, or “kiosks”, to influence and support local decision-making)

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falls neatly within the Bank’s current development philosophy of encouraging communityparticipation in decisions that affect them. Organisational decentralisation and devolution,improvement of sub-national data sets, and the need for improving the flow of data that informdecisions are important elements in this process. The meeting identified these elements as keyboth in current policies of the Government of India and in the program of reforms pursued withinthe World Bank during recent years.

22. The Team expressed its belief that at the core of this process also is the desire to redressautomatic social exclusion and to reinforce established political rights with notions of socialjustice that support social entitlement. Public information depends on the energy that CLIC canmobilize and serves as an essential signaling system for the delivery of public goods and services(like market prices for private goods). The production and distribution of collective (social)goods, where no explicit market and revealed demand are identifiable, depend on the informationthat CLIC is best able to gather.

23. The District officials noted that the community-level information structures, embracinglearning, local culture, and library functions, will serve as more than streamlined (nodal) pointsfor data capture and dissemination. They fit with the recent Constitutional Amendments todevolve more power to people at the community (grass roots) level. These community-levelinformation structures will be complementary to existing hierarchical functions of line ministriesand IT infrastructure. In due course, they may be expected, through negotiation and officialconsensus, to take over many of the lower-level statistical reporting activities of the lineagencies. Since this is likely to involve some ‘treasury’ of information about individuals, someof which should be treated as confidential (e.g. health records, personal debts owing, etc.), therewill be need for some form of personal protection of anonymity in the form of private disclosureagreements covering certain areas, according to the District Collector.

24. The Team reflected that the essential questions to resolve at the district, block andpanchayat levels are not rooted in statistics per se, but seem essentially to lie embedded inexisting institutions and management cultures. Given the growing role of village communities inthe management of their own development, the key questions are whether there is a need for datagathering arrangements tightly linked with revealed demand and manifest concern for localinformation, and how far these arrangements will catalyze local development. The Team’ssubsequent visit to several blocks and panchayats left no doubt about the enthusiasm for runningsuch a pilot scheme, and that this was something that people valued and would rank high in theirdevelopment priorities.

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IV. Plans for experimental tests of CLIC

The Team’s discussions with the Directors for Economics and Statistics in Tamil Nadu andPondicherry UT led to the following understandings:

A. Tamil Nadu

25. The Director of the Department of Economics and Statistics, Dr. R. Baskaran, I.A.S., onbehalf of the State-level Stakeholders (SLS) of the Government of Tamil Nadu, will prepare aconcept paper on CLIC, as it should apply in Tamil Nadu. Materials available from theWorkshop on Modernization of the Statistical System in India (14-16 September, Delhi) may bedrawn upon or used. (See Attachment 2.)

26. The Government of Tamil Nadu will publish, or otherwise disseminate, the SLS conceptpaper on CLIC. A brief (1-2 page) summary will be made available to newspapers andappropriate journals (referencing the more detailed reports available) to elicit wide debate andcomments from community-level organizations (panchayats, CBOs, NGOs) as well as higherlevel bodies.

27. SLS will revise the concept paper in light of this feedback. The Director of Economics andStatistics will convey (through letter with references to available documentation) results to allManagement Units (MUs) in a pre-selected district targeting also a sufficient selection of blockswithin that district. These MUs will be invited to participate in an experimental pilot test ofCLIC in which the first step is representative MU attendance at a workshop on CLIC to be heldin Chennai. For this purpose the SLS will pre-select certain blocks on a statistical basis. In thefinal selection of MUs to participate in this experiment, full and voluntary participation by allMUs in a given block will be regarded as a favourable factor for their selection.

28. The workshop, to be organized and coordinated by the Department of Economics andStatistics, is suggested to be held under sponsorship of the SLS, DS (Department of Statistics,Government of India) and the World Bank’s Economic Development Institute. At the end of theworkshop, participating MUs will have opportunity to volunteer formally for the experimentalpilot test.

29. The SLS, in consultation with the appropriate district and block agencies, will select astratified sample from the volunteering MUs, not to exceed 200 in total. This ceiling correspondsroughly to the maximum grant obtainable from the World Bank’s Institutional DevelopmentFund (IDF), reckoning at US$ 2,500 per MU (see Annex to Section IV). This selection shouldsample Municipal Corporations, urban areas (Town Panchayats) and Village Panchayats. Thisshould be done in a representative manner, given the constraints implied by the pre-selection ofdistrict and blocks. The range of technical capabilities, particularly at block level, should berepresented in the sample for each of the three groups.

30. MUs will be notified of the results of the selection process. Winning MUs will eachappoint the Director-Designate of their CLIC (DDC), after receiving a capital grant (from the

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World Bank) to assist in the capital expenses of starting up the CLIC. This will come afterappropriate preparation by state, district and block offices to support and enable this CLIC tooperate effectively, through training, provision of equipment, and other technical and financialsupport. A prototype budget template for a CLIC has been proposed by the Director, Economicsand Statistics, as shown below. The funds from the WB should be conveyed to Director-Designates of CLIC only as an integral part of the whole package of support committed to theDDC considered to be necessary for a successful start-up. The SLS will take the lead in planningthis package of support, coordinated through the district and block-level statistical officers.

31. The grant to each MU is tentatively suggested to be computed by a formula presented inthe Annex to this section. The details of such a formula will finally be decided by the SLS (inconsultation with the SLS in Pondicherry).

32. After six months from the conveying of this support (or commitment of support), eachDDC will submit a business plan for each respective CLIC, for review by the respective MU, andcopied for information to the SLS and to corresponding stakeholders at district and block levels.

33. CLIC business plans will be reviewed, revised and accepted at MU level, and automaticallyaccepted at all upper levels on a lapse-of-time basis.

34. The SLS will provide a summary of business plans to the DS and WB, either as a singleprototype or, more likely, as a set of prototypes for significantly different groups in the stratifiedsample.

35. Execution of the business plans will start on a given, uniform date. On this date, Directors– Designate will become Directors of CLIC.

36. At the end of the first year following this date, CLIC Directors will file a first AnnualReport, and thereafter regular CLIC Annual Reports, with their respective MUs. These AnnualReports will be reviewed, collated and summarised through a process to be specified by SLS inconsultation with the DS and WB and with interested district and block agencies. The purposeof this process is to monitor and evaluate the CLIC program as a whole and to provide guidanceto the statistical modernization process as a whole in India, as it impacts on the ground level.

37. The SLS will send a summary of Annual Reports on CLIC performance in Tamil Nadu toDS and WB and to other federal-level stakeholders, as may be directed by the federal-levelPlanning Commission.

38. DS and WB will use this Annual Report on CLIC as an aid to planning and monitoring theground-level aspect of statistical modernization in India.

39. On the basis of the first year’s CLIC Annual Reports, a seminar at WB Headquarters(Washington), sponsored by WB EDI, should be held for the following three purposes: (1) totake stock of progress, (2) to inform WB management and staff and to receive feedback and

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advice from them, (3) to make recommendations for any mid-course corrections in theseexperiments in the pilot testing of CLIC.

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Template of a “Typical” CLIC Budget for an MU in Tamil Nadu, Covering thePreparation and Running-In Periods

(In thousands of Rupees)

Preparation Running-In Periods CumulativeTotal

Expenses,Revenues, and

Grants

Initial6 months

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

A. CAPITALEXPENSESBusiness planpreparationTrainingBuildingEquipmentIT InfrastructureOther (e.g.establishingnetworks)Stock-buildingTotal capitalexpensesB. CURRENTEXPENSESSalaries/wages offull-time workersRents (building)Compensation forpart-time workConsumption ofmaterialsLicences andsoftware chargesFees andhonorariumsCapitalconsumptionallowancesTotal currentexpensesC. REVENUESGrants (falling to

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Preparation Running-In Periods CumulativeTotal

Expenses,Revenues, and

Grants

Initial6 months

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

zero by year 4)Renewable contractrevenue fromprovision of dataOne-off-dataservicesFees from use ofequipmentOther earningsTotal revenues =total expensesD. GRANTS(Sources)1. Administrativebudgets ofstakeholdersa) Statistical Offices1. Federal2. State3. District/Blockb) Line Ministries2. Development &Planning Fundsa) DRDA (DistrictRural DevelopmentAgency)b) Other centrally-funded schemes3. External Sourcesa) World Bankb) Other multi-lateral agencies(ADB, FAO,UNDP, ILO, WHO,etc.)c) Bilateral aidagencies (DFID,USAID, etc.)

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B. Pondicherry UT

40. The Director of the Department of Economics and Statistics, Shri S. Kanagasabai, onbehalf of the State-level Stakeholders (SLS) of the Government of Pondicherry, will prepare aconcept paper on CLIC, as it should apply in Pondicherry. Materials available from theWorkshop on Modernization of the Statistical System in India may be drawn upon or used. (SeeAttachment 2.)

41. The Government of Pondicherry will publish or otherwise disseminate the SLS conceptpaper on CLIC. A brief (1-2 page) summary will be made available to newspapers andappropriate journals (referencing the more detailed reports available), to elicit wide debate andcomments from community-level organizations (communes, villages, NGOs, local developmentbanks) as well as higher-level bodies.

Note : By this stage in the implementation process, a few months from now, electedCommune and Municipal Officers should be in place, so that decisions on participation are takendemocratically. Participation will be voluntary.

42. The SLS will revise the concept paper in light of this feedback. The Director of Economicsand Statistics will convey results to all Pondicherry and Karaikal Management Units (MUs)through a letter, with appropriate references to available documentation. These MUs will beinvited to participate in an experimental pilot test of CLIC in which the first step is representativeMU attendance at a workshop on CLIC, to be held in Pondicherry.

43. The workshop, to be organized and coordinated by the Department of Economics andStatistics, is suggested to be held under sponsorship of the SLS, DS (Department of Statistics,Government of India) and the World Bank’s Economic Development Institute (WB EDI). At theend of the workshop, participating MUs will have the opportunity to volunteer formally for theexperimental pilot test in Pondicherry.

44. Participating MUs will each appoint the Director Designate of their CLIC (DDC), afterreceiving a capital grant (from the World Bank) to assist in covering the capital expenses ofstarting up the CLIC. This will come after appropriate preparation by state and block statisticaloffices to support and enable this CLIC to operate effectively, through training, provision ofequipment, and other technical and financial support. The funds from the WB should beconveyed to the Director-Designate of CLIC only as an integral part of the whole package ofsupport that will be committed to the DDC, considered to be necessary for a successful start-up.The SLS will take the lead in planning this package of support, coordinated through the Block-level officers (BDOs).

45. The grant to each MU is tentatively suggested to be computed by a formula, presented inthe Annex to this section. The details of such a formula will finally be decided by the SLS (inconsultation with the SLS of Tamil Nadu).

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46. After six months from the conveying of this support (or commitment of support), eachDDC will submit a business plan for each respective CLIC, for review by the respective MU, andcopied for information to the SLS and to corresponding stakeholders at block level.

47. CLIC business plans will be reviewed and revised and accepted at MU level, andautomatically accepted at all upper levels on a lapse-of-time basis.

48. SLS will provide a summary of business plans to the DS and WB, either as a singleprototype or, more likely, as a set of prototypes for significantly different groups of MUs (e.g.communes and municipalities).

49. Execution of the business plans will start on a given, uniform date. On this date Director-Designates will become Directors of CLIC.

50. At the end of the first year following this date, CLIC Directors will file a first AnnualReport, and thereafter regular CLIC Annual Reports, with their respective MUs. These AnnualReports will be reviewed, collated and summarized through a process to be specified by SLS inconsultation with the DS and WB. The purpose of this process is to monitor and evaluate theCLIC program as a whole and to provide guidance to the statistical modernization process as awhole in India, as it impacts on the commune/panchayat level.

51. SLS will send a summary Annual Report on CLIC performance in Pondicherry to DS andWB, and to other federal-level stakeholders, as may be directed by the federal- level PlanningCommission.

52. DS and WB will use this Annual Report on CLIC as an aid to planning and monitoring theground level aspect of statistical modernization in India.

53. On the basis of the first year’s CLIC Annual Report, a seminar at WB Headquarters(Washington), sponsored by WB EDI, should be held for the following three purposes: (1) totake stock of progress, (2) to inform WB management and staff and to receive feedback andadvice from them, (3) to make recommendations for any mid-course corrections in theseexperiments in the pilot testing of CLIC.

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Annex to Section IVProposed Grant Formula

Gi = exp [K(W ln Ai + (1-W) ln Pi)]

where:

Gi = grant in US dollars to the ith MUexp = exponential functionln = natural logarithm functionAi = area of the community represented by the ith MUPi = population of the ith MU (by 1991 census)W = a weight parameter to be determined by the policy-level stakeholders.K = a scalar that satisfies the aggregation condition ΣGi = US$ 525,000. Subscript i

will be defined over 200 MUs in Tamil Nadu (to be selected by a samplingprocedure determined by the Government of Tamil Nadu) and all 10 MUs inPondicherry and Karaikal regions. The total dollar sum is the product of thetotal number of MUs in the experiment (210) and US $ 2500 per MU. Thiswas the figure suggested by Working Group # 1 (“Pilot Testing of CLIC”) ofthe Workshop on Modernization of the Statistical System in India, 16-19September, 1998, New Delhi, sponsored by the Department of Statistics,Government of India.

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Attachment 1

Program and Participants inthe Meeting with Officials of Government of Tamil Nadu

Stat Planning CommissionSeptember 17, 1998

(Available with hard copy)

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Attachment 2

References: Inventory of Documents Available as of September 23, 1998

1. P. Armington, “Community-based Information Lending (CIL), with an Example of PilotTesting in India”, World Bank (processed), June 17, 1998 (Workshop Documentation).

2. P. Armington, “Culture, Library, and Information Centers (CLIC): The CLICTransformation of Information in India” (Workshop Documentation).

3. Workshop on Modernization of the Statistical System in India, 14-16 September, 1998,New Delhi: Report of Working Group # 1 (Data Collection at Ground Level: Setting up ofCLIC).

4. Addendum to the Report of Working Group # 1: “Pilot Testing of CLIC”, September 16,1998. (Workshop Documentation)

5. R. Baskanen, I.A.S., Director of Economics and Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu,“Setting Up of Culture, Library and Information Centre (CLIC) at the Village ClusterLevel” (Workshop Documentation).

6. R. Baskaran, “Implementation Report on Setting Up of Culture, Library, and InformationCentres (CLIC): Pilot Project - Tamil Nadu. (Available from the Director, Directorate ofEconomics and Statistics, Chennai, fax 4322871). See also, Statistical Handbook of TamilNadu, 1998, and Districts At a Glance, 1997.

7. S. Kanagasabai, “Status Paper on the UT of Pondicherry”. (Available from Office of theDirector of Economics and Statistics, fax 0413-337575). See also: “Status Report of theLocal Bodies in the Union Territory of Pondicherry”, Government of Pondicherry, LocalAdministration Department, September 1997. Also, Pondicherry Statistical Handbook,1995-96 and 1996-97.

8. Department of Statistics, Government of India, Report of the Expert Committee on SmallArea Statistics, April 1997. (Available from the Secretary, Statistics.)

9. “Performance of Tamil Nadu under Centrally Sponsored Schemes”, 1998. (Available fromthe Secretary, Rural Development Department, Government of Tamil Nadu.)

10. National Informatics Centre, “Project Proposal for Wired Village Project at Warana Nagar,Maharashtra”, NIC (WR), Pune, 22 June, 1998. (Available from C.S.R. Prabhu, NationalInformatics Centre, Chennai, E-mail Prabhu@tn.nic.in)

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11. V.D. Lall (Director of Society for Development Studies), “Need Assessment, Monitoringand Evaluation: Techniques for Decentralized Planning: Advanced International HRDProgramme, October 5-November 28, 1998. (Available from Dr. Lall, fax 91-11-687-5862).

12. “Rural Indicators Programme, Literature Search”, Society for Development Studies, NewDelhi, May 1998. (See item 11.)

13. Vikas Volunteer Vahinic (Volunteer Rural Development NGO, Tamil Nadu), “State LevelReview and Development Meet, 26 February, 1998”, National Bank for Agriculture andRural Development, Chennai. (Available from NABARD, Chennai, or from P. Armington,e-mail PArmington@Worldbank.org).

14. CHEC and SDS, “Community Learning and Information Communication (CLIC) Centres”,a project in India of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC) and the Societyfor Development Studies (SDS), and other partners (September 1998). (Available from P.Armington.)