The Andaman & Nicobar (A&N) Islands is an archipelago of around 572 Islands located in the Bay of Bengal geographically cut off from Indian Peninsula. Only 38 of the islands are inhabited. The Islands are located at a distance of around 1200 km from Calcutta and Chennai, the total area being 8,249 sq. km and stretching more than 700 km from north to south. The NIC, Andaman & Nicobar Islands UT Centre was setup at Port Blair in 1988 and since then this centre is committed to provide total Information Technology solutions and services to Andaman & Nicobar Administration & Central Government Departments. Presently, NIC has two District centres functioning at District headquarters of South Andaman District and Nicobar District. Citizen Services Delivery of citizen services is the primary focus of the current e-Governance initiatives of the NIC UT centre and the following information systems have been developed and launched to reach this objective:  Electronic Citizen Services (ECS) Electronic Citizen Services or ECS (rhymed as “Easy !! Yes”) software is a web based application developed and deployed under the guidance of the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Port Blair, for counter based electronic delivery of 41 types of citizen services. The software was launched in Feb 2007 with the following salient features:  Process and work flow automation from counter to DC (for 10 services till now)  Pre defined service levels and automatic alert and escalation systems  Computerized generation of orders and outputs  Finger print based approval process, Kiosk based dissemination of service  IVRS support for status update A separate website for the DC office encompassing the ECS and other activities of DC office has been developed and is scheduled for launch soon.  Online uploading of information from individual departments in the website The website of A & N Administration (www.and.nic.in) provides online information to the citizens and departments has been provided with the facility to upload details online from the respective departments.  Planned Family System Planned Family System Software is a web based service portal for Health department launched in March 2007, under a scheme for registration of girl children of islands who are provided with monetary benefits at various stages of life. The software has the following key features: — Computerised Registration Card for beneficiary — Assist and monitor the disbursement of benefits — Finger print and Photo capturing of beneficiary — Interfacing with the payment delivery system (Bank) The NIC UT centre has taken up several initiatives recently in several areas not just in computerising the existing systems but also to re-engineer processes with work flow automation. With this perspective, the following major activities have been taken up:  Tsunami Relief & Rehabilitation Package After 26th Dec 2004 when the tsunami killer waves hit the islands, NIC UT centre was entrusted the work of developing a website to disseminate all the information relating to relief measures to the general public and other monitoring agencies at state and GOI level. The website “http://tsunami.and.nic.in” provided critical details like — List of missing/dead persons — Island wise damages — Magnitude of earth quake and shocks — Ex-gratia payment to the families of victims etc., This site was continuously monitored by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to oversee the relief activities.  Online Monitoring system for Construction of Permanent Shelter As a follow up of the Tsunami 2004, the department of Relief and Rehabilitation has commenced construction of around 10000 permanent shelters at 70 locations in 10 islands. NIC has developed a web based MIS to monitor the status of Construction of these Permanent Shelters with the following details — Island wise and Agency wise status of construction — Maps and photographs of the locations — Performance against targets and status at a glance — List of beneficiaries for whom shelters are being built etc., The Ministry of Home Affairs, National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) and NGOs are using this site to closely monitor the status of Construction of Permanent shelters.  Land Records The computerization of Land Records in the UT has been taken up with the assistance of NIC, Chennai by extending the scope of the “Tamil Nilam” software, to include the activities relating to mutation work flow. The package has been implemented at the pilot location in 1 tehsil and will be rolled out to other tehsils soon.  Seat Allotment System (SAS) for Professional Courses As the entire UT does not have a single Engineering/Medical college, the Education Department facilitates candidates of the Islands to undergo education in the professional courses in selected colleges in the country. NIC has developed and implemented the web based Seat Allotment System for online allotment of seats with salient features, like — Online Allotment of seats based on 5 types of category (native, tribal, etc.,) — Automatic generation of merit lists, allotment list and nomination letters etc., — Online allotment status at the allotment centre & through the web Excerpt of the letter from Sh. Arvind Ray, IAS, Commr-cum-Secretary (Education), A & N Administration to NIC in September 2007 “I am happy to know that the seat allotment process for candidates of the Islands in professional courses (Medical /Engg. etc) in the colleges in Mainland has been completed successfully this year with the help of the customized software developed and implemented by NIC, Port Blair…I thank the officers of NIC, Port Blair who have done an excellent job in this process.” — Dissemination of various announcements relating to allotment process — Developed using open source technology and tools  “Intra And” Portal This project is perhaps the most ambitious and important E-Governance initiative to be taken up in recent years and is being developed by NIC in close coordination with the Secretary (IT) of A & N Administration. The G2E application will encompass all software applications developed by NIC for different departments with a common database and online connectivity between individual systems and IntraAnd. The salient features include: — Employee database covering employees across all levels, locations, departments, districts, etc., for around 30,000 employees — Assigning of roles to employees for updating data for specific functions — Employee profile (Personal, education, transfer, promotion, ACR, etc.,) — Accounts data (Pay Slip, GPF, Loans & Advances) uploading & dissemination — Employee grievances and redressal Above all, the portal also renders valuable services on budget estimation and expenditure, provides single point interface for tenders, vacancies, circulars etc and monitors specific projects (physical and financial) at various levels. Excerpt of a circular from Dr. G.D Badgaiyan, IAS, Secretary (IT), A & N Administration to all Departments in August 2007 “The IntraAnd software has the potential of radically changing the way this administration is run …an IT based initiative that will allow the UT Administration to work more efficiently than at present is now ready for implementation … the software has been developed through the efforts of NIC , Port Blair and IT Department in the last many months.” The IntraAnd portal is scheduled for launch by end of 2007.  Online Hotel booking with UTI payment gateway Online hotel accommodation booking of Government owned star hotels is a portal developed by NIC for — Online request for booking of hotels by tourists — Booking and confirmations positions by ANIIDCO, the implementing agency — Payments made by tourists after confirmation — Hotel facilities, tariff and photos — Payment gateway interface with UTI Bank (now Axis bank)  Tourism website NIC has developed and launched the tourism website with updated information for the tourists like how to reach, where to stay, tourist spots, shipping schedules, restricted areas list etc., which enable the tourists to plan their tour.  Department MIS for LG's Office The Lieutenant Governor office periodically monitors the activities of departments and the status relating to budget, staff details, pending cases, pension details, vacancies etc., Excerpt of the letter from Sh. G.C.Joshi, IAS, Secretary to Lt. Governor, A & N Administration to NIC in September 2007 “The NIC Centre in Port Blair has been providing valuable assistance to the A & N Administration in many e-Governance initiatives for the benefit of the A & N Administration and the general citizen …I wish to thank the NIC Centre for providing the IT Services and expect the same to continue in future.” National Level Projects & Support The NIC UT centre is extending active support and coordination to the implementation of the national level projects of NIC like CIPA, District courts, Confonet, Immigration, Agricultural Census, PAO 2000, IDSP etc. Hardware and Networking Infrastructure In order to support the various e-Governance initiatives and to provide reliable and continuous Internet services to the A & N Administration, NIC has established the following infrastructure which is closely monitored for optimum usage and minimum down time: Communications Infrastructure: — 2 mbps Leased Line and 512 kbps VSAT link being provided between A & N UT Centre and NIC Tamil Nadu, for providing Internet & E-mail services to Andaman & Nicobar Administration including Secretariat, Lt. Governor's Office and various other State & Central Govt. Departments in Islands Networking Infrastructure: — Secure Network Infrastructure was setup at NIC, A & N UT Centre consisting of PIX Firewalls, Antivirus, Patch Management, ISA servers, IPS to provide E-Mail & Internet services in a secured manner. Video Conferencing Services: — NIC A & N UT Centre has setup a Video Conferencing system based on VSAT and ISDN lines for the use of Administration including Secretariat, Lt. Governor's Office and various other State & Central Govt. Departments. — Frequent VC sessions are held between Officers of Administration and GOI offices at New Delhi like National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Central Information Commissioner (CIC) through the VC studios established in the Secretariat, for which technical support is provided by NIC. VSAT Facilities: — Apart from the existing 2 VSATs of 2.8 m of SCPC PAMA & DAMA technology, another VSAT of 3.8 meter with SCPC PAMA was installed to improve the Internet & E-mail services with increased bandwidth. — Installation of Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) for detecting and preventing known/unknown attacks in the Network. The Department of IT at Andaman & Nicobar Administration is closely coordinating all IT initiatives with NIC's support to promote e-Governance. The IT Department has also taken up a number of other e-governance applications in sectors like Vehicle Registration and Driving license, Employment exchange computerisation, Tele Medicine, Hospital Information System, etc. In addition, the IT Department is also managing the capacity building project like SWAN to provide the infrastructure support for all the e-Governance initiatives. Some other key projects undertaken by the IT Department includes: — STARS (Ship Ticketing Advance Reservation System) — SAAM (Store and Accounts Management System) — Computerisation of State Library — Revenue Collection & Electricity Billing Excerpt of the letter from Shumsher K. Sheriff, IAS, Former Chief Secretary, A & N Administration to NIC in April 2007 “It has been a great privilege working in this Administration and meeting multiple challenges of development in this UT. I am also aware that despite difficult conditions you and the centre have taken all efforts to achieve progress for the Islands. .. I take this opportunity to wish you and all the officers and staff of the NIC centre all success in the future.” Like it's counterparts in the rest of the country, the NIC A & N UT centre has been in the forefront of utilising the ICT in its earnest efforts to make a visible difference to the life of the Islanders. Constraints and difficult conditions that are faced in the remote islands in this process are being continuously overcome by NIC, reflecting on the saying of Swami Vivekananda “Conviction is the mother of all great deeds”.