Akola district is situated in the middle east of Maharashtra State. This district is situated between North 20.17 to 21.16 latitude and East 76.7 to 77.4 longitudes. There are ranges of Gavilgad hills on the north of the district. The total area of Akola district is 5428 sq. Km. There are 7 tehsils in Akola District Akola, Balapur, Patur, Barshitakali, Murtizapur, Akot, and Telhara. There is 1 Municipal corporation, 5 Municipal councils, 1 Nagar panchayat in the district. Akola is famous for its various shimmering rivers, gorgeous winters, sprawling forts, and intricately carved temples and mosques. Identity of Akola district is Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV), Shri Vijay P. Bhatkar, an architect of India’s national initiative in supercomputing, and Shri Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology. NIC, Akola has played an important role in Covid-19 pandemic situation as well as in video conferencing, providing support for the management and monitoring of e-Governance projects. NIC Akola actively supported and participated in the programs and functions organized in the Akola district. I have taken special note of the perfect work done by NIC, Akola. I foresee that NIC, Akola will work with the same zeal and enthusiasm and serve with the same spirit and energy.

  • Shri SANJAY DHOTRE Union Minister of State for Education, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, GoI

ICT Initiatives in the District Akola continued all its communication facilitation, technical support, system analysis services uninterrupted full time all the days for the ICT initiative in the district. The major ICT activities are as follows. General Loksabha PC Election 2019 & Vidhansabha AC Election 2019 NIC Akola has provided Technical support, Communication Facilitation, System Analysis, capacity building, and allied services for General Loksabha Parliamentary Constituency Election 2019 and Vidhansabha Assembly Constituency Election 2019 for 06 Akola Parliamentary Constituency including the Legislative Assembly Constituencies(LAC) 28 Akot LAC, 29 Balapur LAC, 30 Akola West LAC, 31 Akola East LAC, 32 Murtizapur and 33 Resod LAC. NIC Akola provided complete technical support in the following processes. • Polling and counting activities including Nominations • Polling Party Formation • EVM Management System • C-Vigil • Live Web Casting from Sensitive Polling booths • ETPBS (Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System) generation • Poll Day Monitoring System (PDMS) • Counting staff randomization • ETPBS counting • Counting Day Monitoring System (CDMS) • ECI Suvidha application DIO and ADIO of NIC, Akola received an appreciation certificate from Hon District Collector, Akola for the support in Elections 2019. Technical Support as a part of Covid-19 Task Force Emergency Services During the situation of the global epidemic of COVID-19 virus NIC, Akola continued all its communication facilitation and technical support services uninterrupted full time all the days including holidays as per the need and requirement. NIC, Akola actively provided technical support and conducted nearly 200 Video Conferencing sessions, including the VIP VC sessions of Hon Prime Minister, Hon Shri Sanjay Dhotre, MOS for MeitY, and Hon Chief Minister, etc. NIC, Akola actively providing technical support for Covid-19 related applications including Aarogya Setu Application implementation and monitoring, Covid-19 Quarantine Alert System (CQAS), E-pass System, and Covid 19 Collection Centre Application. National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP) For making the process of the switch over from offline to online processing quick and seamless, NIC District Centre, Akola has adopted resource optimization for utility computing. It made use of several innovations like Process isolation, Virtualization, Server consolidation, Software, Hardware portability, and leveraging of shared networks with cloud-like services with complete Virtual Machine as a service implemented in the State of Maharashtra. The notable achievements of the project are improved service delivery, increased throughput, increased efficiency, and creates cost-effective solutions for concrete and effective e-Governance. National Informatics Centre Akola has developed Virtual Machines of Client for the sustainability of Property Card Information System (PCIS) at District and Taluka Inspector of Land Records (TILR) offices running all over the state thereby saving hardware cost at each location. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan) Technical support and capacity building for the beneficiary’s records data uploading, correction to the Taluka and district level staff. Akola district- Online Kotwal Book Kotwal Book is the birth/ death/ caste records maintained in the form of registers by the Village Kotwals since ancient times in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. All Kotwal book entries are scanned and computerized with Metadata entry and made available online for the public using the Kotwal Book online application. The online distribution of the Kotwal Book records was started in 2015 and till now 30,513 Kotwal book copies have been served online, and a total transaction for the revenue of Rs. 7,62,825/- was achieved. Citizens at the remote village level can avail of the copy of the Kotwal book online from anywhere with online payment through the payment gateway. Those Govt. Offices, to whom the copy of the Kotwal Book is submitted by citizens, can verify its authenticity online by using the QR Code Reader. Website: http://digitalakola.in/ District Website Design, Development, and Maintenance of District Website https://akola.gov.in district website is migrated to Secure, Scalable & Sugamya Website as a Service (S3WaaS) Framework on 05th April 2018. Akola is the third district in the state of Maharashtra to migrate the district website to the S3WaaS platform. Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW-महापार) MAHAPAR Training and Technical support are provided for users of Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (MAHAPAR) in Akola District for filing their online Annual Performance Appraisal Reports (APAR). Imparted training for use of DSC and e-Sign. Website: https://mahapar.maharashtra.gov.in NIC, Akola wholeheartedly executed a valuable role during Election 2019, Covid-19 pandemic, NLRMP, PM Kisan, Video Conferencing, MAHAPAR, and other e-Governance projects, with great responsibility. The contribution of NIC, Akola to the successful conduct of the entire computerization was indeed very much commendable. The technical expertise and proficiency exhibited by NIC, Akola officials has helped us to carry out the entire computerization works successfully with ease and efficiency. I appreciate and congratulate NIC, Akola for the integrity, teamwork, team spirit, promptness, sincerity, hard work shown.

  • JITENDRA S. PAPALKAR, IAS Collector & District Magistrate Akola District

Significant Achievements and Initiatives • NIC, Akola have three major significant innovative initiatives of delivery of cloud-like services with Virtual Machine as a service, Major contribution in the implementation of NLRMP for Akola and Maharashtra, and Framework for e-Governance of fundamental resources water, electricity • Akola is the first District in Maharashtra where online mutation started for taluka Telhara in August 2014. Online e-Mutation processing in all 7 Taluka’s of Akola is started from Feb 2015. Akola is one of the leading Districts in the online e-Mutation processing activity of Maharashtra • District Website switched over to Secure, Scalable and Sugamya Website as a Service (S3WaaS) framework from 5 April 2018. Akola is the third district in the state of Maharashtra to switch over to S3WaaS • New Initiative of Framework for e-Governance of fundamental resources Electricity, Water “based on emerging cognitive technologies Other Key Initiatives During the situation of the global epidemic of COVID-19 virus NIC, Akola continued all its communication facilitation and technical support services uninterrupted full time all the days including holidays as per the need and requirement. NIC, Akola actively provided technical support and conducted nearly 200 Video Conferencing sessions, including the VIP VC sessions of Hon Prime Minister, Hon Shri Sanjay Dhotre, MOS for MeitY, and Hon Chief Minister, etc. NIC, Akola actively providing technical support for Covid-19 related applications including Aarogya Setu Application implementation and monitoring, Covid-19 Quarantine Alert System (CQAS), E-pass System, and Covid 19 Collection Centre Application. Framework for e-Governance of fundamental resources Electricity, Water We are getting items wise bills for grocery and other items purchased in the supermarket. We are getting call wise and usage wise bills for telephone and mobile. But for water and electricity, we are not getting billing as per the device wise utilization. Why? Basically, due to fact that digital unique identification and the digital accessing system do not exist for water and electricity devices and equipment. Problem Statement No digital record keeping and accessing system with digital UID (like IP address) with basic Attributes (Name, Value, Type, Location,) exists for resources and items of water and electricity system (sources, devices, outlets, inlets, Channels, storage etc). The billing is based only on the basis of the flow of resource (water, electricity) through the meter, and all the leakages, theft, unpaid unrecoverable bills are saddled on the consumers in hidden. Instead, consumers should know and pay for the exact utilization of the resource by the devices and equipment’s like TV, Refrigerator, AC, Washing Machine etc. Solution: Brief Description The initiative involves the framework for e-Governance of fundamental resources (Water, Electricity, etc) using:

  1. Digital record-keeping with Digital UID (unique identification) address like IP and Digital UID location address (based on longitude and latitude) and
  2. Digital accessing with IoT sensors, Actuators by using the emerging cognitive Technologies like IoT (Internet of Things), BIoT (Building Internet of Things), IoET (Internet of Every Thing), Software-Defined Infrastructure(SDI), Wi-Fi 6, 5G, Edge Computing, Fog Computing, GPS, AI, Data Analytics, Blockchain, etc. This initiative is for the total remote management of water and electricity system with the ultimate aim to provide water and electricity bills with device wise consumption similar to Telephone and Mobile. Devices, Equipment, and Components of water and electricity are expected to come with IoT inbuilt to control remotely and measure its utilization. Online Resources at: https://akola.gov.in/national-informatic-center/

Awards and Accolades NIC, Akola is bestowed with 21 Awards and Recognitions including the International Award of Open Group’s Award for “Online e-Mutation Implementation for District Akola“ and two South Asia level Awards of Manthan south Asia Pacific Award in 2014 and 2016-17. DIO and ADIO of NIC, Akola are honoured by Hon Chief Minister, Maharashtra for excellence in e-Governance. In the year 2020, NIC, Akola received three awards for the initiative “Framework for e-Governance of fundamental resources Electricity, Water” as below. • NIC, Akola is the Winner of SKOCH “ORDER OF MERIT” and SKOCH Silver Award of Technology in SKOCH Awards 2020, in the 68th SKOCH Summit virtually held on 30th November 2020 • NIC, Akola is the Winner of the Digital Technology Sabha Awards 2020, under the category Internet of Things (IoT). The Award is conferred on 26th August 2020 • NIC, Akola is the winner of elets INDIA Transformation Award 2020. Award felicitated on 10th July 2020 Summary Along with the smooth and agile communication facilitation, NIC, Akola executed an excellent role in the implementation of effective digital governance in the district Akola. NIC, Akola introduced and implemented major path-breaking innovative initiatives for the optimization of technical resources for improved service delivery, increased throughput, and increased efficiency and to provide cost-effective solutions for the concrete and effective e-Governance. The active role of NIC, Akola helped District Administration in successfully conducting Election 2019; cope up with the Covid-19 pandemic situation, and implementing e-Governance in Akola district.