Dr.-Ramesh-Narasimhan-Case-study-on-ICT-Adoption - NMIMS

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36 Nemmadi: bytes and bites of ICT implementation M Das Aundhe and R <strong>Narasimhan</strong> why it is pending. If they do not listen, I have to resort to holding their salary or even issuing a suspension notice. In the taluk office, it was often observed that the Comat Technologies representative operated the computer on behalf of the government functionary, be it the caseworker to enter data provided by the village accountant or revenue inspector in the field verification reports, or the tahsildar for keying in the final approval. Thus, Comat Technologies ended up substituting/handholding caseworkers, revenue inspectors and even the tahsildar in the taluk office for interfacing with computers. The operation of the computers in the taluk office was carried out largely by representatives of Comat Technologies, who moved the login from one level (revenue inspector) to the next level (caseworker) of the process, right up to the tahsildar. This was beyond the call of their duty. Regarding this, Sanjay Chauhan, VP Comat Technologies said: This was just a gesture on our part to increase adoption of technology, and therefore Nemmadi. However, this was often not acknowledged and we ended up doing a thankless job. Further, a hard copy of all the documents continued to be generated at the taluk office. In fact, the tahsildar was required to approve by signing off on a hard copy of the caseworker’s note before the Comat Technologies representative moved the application to the tahsildar’s login. The latter then digitally signed the certificate, which was printed at the telecentre and handed over to the applicant. Managing process inefficiencies During the roll-out of telecentres, the intermediaries at the taluk level also created hurdles. They were up in arms. Earlier, at Bhoomi centres, these middlemen filled in the application form, had the whole thing processed and charged a payment for the same. They were greatly upset when Nemmadi proposed to have telecentre operators assist citizens and capture all the citizen information over the counter. As per the initial design, it was planned that a citizen would come almost empty-handed; the application form would be generated from the system once all the details were keyed in. The photograph, too, would be captured at the telecentre. The citizen would only provide the necessary enclosures, and the telecentre operator would then send it to the taluk office. However, as the middlemen refused to allow telecentres to begin operation, government succumbed to their pressure, and the National Informatics Centre tweaked the process flow. The middlemen were allowed to submit the application on behalf of the citizen, but they had to get a photograph of the citizen. The urgency with which the Nemmadi system was implemented resulted in automating the as-is government processes without re-engineering them. Therefore, the process inefficiencies continued and resulted in erroneous certificates, delayed responses, etc. This manifested the most during April–June, during which all admissions to schools and colleges were scheduled. This period saw the maximum number of applications. There was enormous pressure on end dates due to limited availability of school/ college seats. During this period, citizens did not accept errors or delays; some of them got middlemen and political pressure to get their job done. The impact of any error during this time was greatly magnified. This, in turn, eroded the confidence of citizens in the e-governance system. Surmounting technology-related hurdles The Nemmadi application was developed as a real-time system. However, during the roll-out many power and connectivity issues emerged, and the real-time system did not serve the purpose. Comat Technologies developed the Global Services Infrastructure that provided for both realtime and off-line (by writing data into the local queue) modes of operation. Once connected, the queue was synchronized with the central database at the SDC. This software development was unforeseen, and contributed to the delay in the roll-out of telecentres. Another major problem Comat Technologies faced was breaks in connectivity between telecentre and SDC. Any break in connectivity affected the RTC printout. Sanjay Chauhan narrated that: We had to keep track of all the stationery issued by the government. At the end of every month, we had to give a report to the government listing out the RTCs that had been issued, and even those that got damaged due to communications failure had to be reported. To counter the problem of breaks in prints causing security or authenticity issues, measures like holograms that identify the documents’ origin and authenticity were later introduced. Post-roll-out phase Monitoring of telecentres The Karnataka government set up the Nemmadi Monitoring Cell, which received 3% of the share of all B2C and G2C service charges of the telecentre activities. The Nemmadi Monitoring Cell consisted of six members, all on contract from reputed private organizations – a project manager, a deputy and three or four testers; the team had no one from the government. The contract employees worked full time with the government and were given salaries in line with the private sector. The Nemmadi Monitoring Cell reported to the Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services (DEDCS), and the latter was responsible for the monitoring of Nemmadi, amongst other e-governance projects of the state. If the government or public had any issue with Nemmadi, the matter was brought to the notice of DEDCS. For complaints related to employment, training or infrastructure at particular telecentres, DEDCS called upon the private partner (in this case, Comat Technologies) to sort the issue out. In addition to regular monitoring, if any government department wanted to add a service, they discussed it with DEDCS. For example, if the Department of Agriculture wanted to make commodity prices available as a service in the telecentre, they would have to route the discussion through DEDCS. Based on the requirement, if some software needed to be developed DEDCS got it developed either by the National Informatics Centre or by some other private IT organization. Collections from Nemmadi were also handled by DEDCS. As per the agreement, whatever proceeds the telecentre
operator collected had to be deposited within 2.5 days in a special account created for this purpose. Ms. Latha, Asst. Director, DEDCS, said, We monitored every transaction and the total amount. There was a slab rate for what the private partner could retain – say 60% could be retained if the revenue is in a particular slab. At the end of the month we reconciled and there were so many SLAs. Penalty was levied on the basis of attendance. The operator’s attendance was recorded bio-metrically. If the money collected was not deposited on time, interest was levied. There was software to calculate the penalty per telecentre. Only 40% of Nemmadi’s revenue came from G2C, the rest came from the B2C services made available by the private party. In addition to the above monitoring mechanism, DEDCS instituted a third-party audit conducted by independent organizations such as the National Informatics Centre, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KEO- NICS) 15 Nemmadi: bytes and bites of ICT implementation M Das Aundhe and R <strong>Narasimhan</strong> to deal with continued complaints of Deputy Commissioners, tahsildars and the public regarding delays in the issue of certificates, operators not trained adequately, deficiencies in the infrastructure and the overall success of Nemmadi. Enhancements and upgrades of applications in telecentres The e-Governance Department had assigned the following tasks to the National Informatics Centre: software enhancements, upgrades, new releases, and the requirements assessment, design and development of any new service to be added to Nemmadi. Jeevan Madan, Senior Officer, National Informatics Centre, Karnataka recounted the National Informatics Centre’s role in Nemmadi: Although our role was only technical, we also ended up playing a role of co-ordination and balancing stakeholders, especially where there were multiple drivers. For example, Nemmadi had two steering wheels – the revenue department whose services constituted the rural digital services, and the e-governance department who was the driver of the telecentres. We were the balancing people – we understood our role – we absorbed and facilitated the flow of information between government departments, when they did not meet face-to-face to discuss out issues. The result of the technical cum co-ordination role of the National Informatics Centre was that it could never exit from the project. Requirements were continuous – some were enhancements; others were new functionalities. For example, Nemmadi version 2.2 needed to be upgraded to version 2.3 within 3–6 months. Additional functionalities such as social security pension were being planned. The existing bag of services also required maintenance. Therefore, it was a continuous process. The National Informatics Centre, during the requirement-gathering phase, also ended up playing the role of business process consultants. It pointed out the lacunae in processes to government departments, and sought process changes, if any. These changes were then incorporated in the software being developed, often resulting in enhancements or new functionalities. 37 The Nemmadi debate Nemmadi seemed to have invited both bouquets and brickbats. In less than a year after it was launched in October 2006, the e-governance project had bagged three prestigious awards 16 during 2007–2008. The citizens, being the most important stakeholders of this project, had mixed opinions. 17 Some praised the system as very convenient. Students did not have to miss school for days in order to procure the certificates (caste, income, etc.) during admissions; they just had to give an application in the telecentres. The telecentres were one-stop shops for caste certificates, train ticket bookings and mobile phone currency recharge, and thus made life easy. There were others who complained about the longer cycle time. Earlier the village accountants could help to get the certificates in 3–4 days. Now it took approximately 2 weeks. There were complaints about the whole process having become more cumbersome for users. In the words of a villager, ‘Furnishing school leaving certificate or transfer certificates has become compulsory. This makes it difficult for many of the citizens who are illiterate. They need to provide special affidavits’. Citizens also complained about facilities at the telecentre. There was no enquiry counter, and people again had to depend on middlemen who provided information at a price, for example list of enclosures for different applications. Information dissemination regarding the status of one’s application was also poor. No one had an idea when their certificates would be ready. There were times when the villagers had to make several visits to the telecentre just to know the status of their application. The telecentres were still fraught with infrastructure issues such as power problems and internet connectivity problems , the brunt of which was borne by the villagers. In the words of a villager, who was a retired government employee, It is a very good system of delivering services to people. But the government has to make it more effective. People need to be informed as to when exactly they will get their certificate. Also facilities at the centre should be improved. People will not mind paying a bit more for a better service. The government had its own take on the Nemmadi project. The e-Governance Department saw some major benefits of Nemmadi, such as: Establishment of 800 telecentres had provided a good start. The concept had been established, and demonstrated. The roles of the village accountant and revenue inspector were reduced to some extent. Awareness, literacy and empowerment of villagers were, all by themselves, great ancillary benefits. First-time creation of data and its validation was a major challenge, but repeatability of data was assured. A <strong>study</strong> done by research scholars showed growth in the number of transactions at Nemmadi telecentres in the last 3 years (Appendix H), which indicated that the citizens were adopting the innovation.
Page 1 and 2: Teaching case Project Nemmadi: the
Page 3 and 4: Nemmadi: bytes and bites of ICT imp
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Page 11 and 12: 7 International Records Management
Page 13 and 14: Appendix B Table B1 Services provid
Page 15 and 16: Appendix E Figure E1 Process flow o
Page 17: Appendix G The stated vision, missi

Dr.-Ramesh-Narasimhan-Case-study-on-ICT-Adoption - NMIMS

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