Vol. II: Shaping Information and Communication ... - IMA,ZLW & IfU

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First, the National Registration Act of 1908 did not contemplate the use of computers to
handle registration procedures. The Registration Act therefore had to be amended, a process
that took over a year.
The Act, in its application to the State of AP, has now been amended to provide for the
following:
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Document registration and copying may be completed with the aid of electronic devices
like computers, scanners and CDs; and copies may be preserved and retrieved with the
same tools.
Copies of documents registered and stored electronically, retrieved, printed and certified
by the sub-registrar shall be received as legal documents.
The Inspector General shall prescribe the registration software.
Second, a large and well-designed training program was conducted [by a private sector
company] to use these new technologies effectively, at a cost of US$ 262,000 [9% of the
project cost]. A training program of 1-3 weeks was organized for different categories of
officers. Seventy-five Data Processing Officers [DPOs] were trained for six months and 1,200
data entry operators were provided 2 weeks of training.
The following decisions were taken to motivate employees:
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A cross-section of field personnel was closely associated with the design and development
of the software, and especially in the task of business process re-engineering.
No external technical personnel were recruited.
The head of the department undertook extensive tours throughout the state and conducted
workshops, presentations, and special training camps involving all departmental
employees. The officials who managed the two pilot sites were closely associated with
this effort.
Senior functionaries of the government such as the Principal Secretary and Minister of the
Revenue Department were closely associated with, and supportive of, the project.
The third implementation challenge was the tremendous data backlog. The CARD Masters
[State Level] could be built without much difficulty, as the data is both limited and readily
available. However, the project encountered major challenges in building up basic value data
and the EC data for the last 15 years. The basic value data consisted of about 50,000 records