Arunachal Pradesh, a vibrant north-eastern state of India covers a total area of 84000 sq km and shares a long international boundary with Bhutan, China and Myanmar. The state has a rich cultural and natural heritage with lush reserve forests and sanctuaries beaming with a variety of wildlife. There are 16 districts in Arunachal Pradesh with Itanagar as the state capital. Arunachal Pradesh also has a rich ethnic diversity with 20 major tribes and more than 50 sub-tribes residing in the state. The NIC Arunachal Pradesh State Centre was established in the year 1989, and subsequently the District Units were formed. NIC has been the pioneer in the field of ICT services in the state and is further engaged in computerization of government departments, imparting computer training and awareness, software development, website development, providing consultancy and many other services to the State and Central Governments. Some of the major activities carried out by NIC Arunachal are as follows: - ž| GPF Accounting System Under this project GPF accounts for all Group A, B and C employees of the State Government are being computerized. The software developed by NIC Arunachal has features to generate broad sheet, annual ledger, annual GPF statement, missing credit and debit adjustment, transfer-in and transfer-out of accounts, final payment processing etc. Presently, computerization of about 30,000 GPF accounts is going on. With the implementation of the package, the department will be better placed for timely delivery of services to account holders. ž| Arunachal Pradesh Payroll system (APPS) It is a software tool that enables efficient processing of the employees’ monthly salary bill. The software developed by NIC Arunachal has facilities to prepare monthly pay bill, calculation of salary and generation of various reports like Pay bill, Bill Abstract, Schedules, Transfer Challans, Bank Account Statement, Acquittance Roll, Pay Slip, Monthly Drawal Statement, Expenditure Statement, Employee Reports, Increment Due List, etc. The APPS has been implemented in the Civil Secretariat. Seeing its popularity, the software has been modified/enhanced to accommodate the requirements of many other departments. A workshop was conducted for the state government departments and after that it is being implemented by many of the departments. ž| Treasury Accounting System (TAS) This project has been implemented to computerize the Treasuries and independent Sub-treasuries of Arunachal Pradesh. The TAS software is developed by NIC Arunachal and implemented in Itanagar Treasury and Naharlagun Sub-Treasury. The software helps in keeping track of Receipt and Payment, Cheque Payment, Pension Payment, Sales of Service Stamp and Stamp Paper, Court Fee Payment, Strong Room Record maintenance, Budget Monitoring, Gratuity and Commutation Payment, Reconciliation of Bank Scrolls, generation of Payment and Receipt Schedules, generation of various statements, Cashbook preparation, etc. TAS is helping the Treasury offices in compilation of daily accounts on time and submission of various reports to the AG Office and Directorate of Accounts and Treasuries. ž| Land Information System of Arunachal This project is taken up by NIC Arunachal for computerization of land allotment system at the Department of Land Management. It has features for data entry of land allotment and mutation. Backlog Data entry for Land Allotment has been completed for 12 districts. ž| Employment Exchange Management System (EEMS) The EEMS software developed by NIC Gujarat has been customised for the employment exchange of Arunachal Pradesh. The software caters to the proper maintenance of the employment exchange live register, submission list, vacancy list, etc. It has been implemented as a pilot project at the Naharlagun Employment Exchange. After that, the same will be replicated in other employment exchanges of the state. ž| 7th All India School Educational Survey This project is being implemented in the state with support of the State government. Data collection, master list creation, data entry and validation work has been completed. ž| Transport Computerization Project Under this project, the VAHAN and SARATHI software, developed by NIC HQ is being utilised for computerization of Vehicle Registration and Driving Licence system. Initially, the project has been implemented at RTO, Papumpare District and RTO Lohit District on pilot basis. ž| Joint Entrance Exam Result Web Hosting JEE Result processing and web hosting are carried out every year by NIC Arunachal for the Department of Higher and Technical Education. The results are hosted on the official website of the state government. ž| Web Based Income Certificate Issue Software NIC Arunachal has developed web based Income Certificate Issue software. The certificate is issued based on Below Poverty Line (BPL) survey and is required for BPL ration card, availing stipend by students etc. At present, it has been implemented at CICs of Tawang and East Siang District. ž| Arunachal Helicopter Service Seat Booking System It has been developed by NIC Arunachal for the Department of Civil Aviation, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh. The system helps the department to handle helicopter bookings efficiently and minimise the manual documentation work of the department. The web-based software is user friendly, has provision for reports on daily sales/revenue collection, confirmed/waitlisted passenger list etc. Training has been imparted to the officials and software has been implemented on a standalone server at Naharlagun Helipad. ž| eSuvidha The project initiated by NIC HQ has been developed for computerizing the front office of Block, District and State administration/departments. This helps the administration in providing timely and efficient citizen services to the people. The system provides the applicant with auto-generated acknowledgement, mentioning the approximate date for the delivery of the required service. It has been implemented in CICs of East Siang District. ž| Secretariat LAN The Arunachal Pradesh Civil Secretariat consists of about 37 office buildings spread across an area of about 0.25 sq km. The Internet connectivity to most of the department and officials were provided in the past through dial up connection. On request of the State Government, NIC prepared the project proposal for Wireless based LAN in the Secretariat Complex and its annexe. The project has been funded by North Eastern Council, Shillong and executed by NIC. The LAN is designed for connecting more than 300 nodes, out of which about 100 have already been activated. The network is provided with Zone-wise centralised UPS. The LAN is connected to the NIC router having 2Mbps leased circuit connectivity. The 256Kbps SCPC VSAT data link acts as backup in case of leased line failure. It is envisaged to implement some LAN based applications for use of Secretariat Administration. To begin with, File Monitoring System has been deployed on a server. ž| Website Development For a remote state like Arunachal Pradesh, websites are an important interface for the Government to showcase its activities and interact with the citizens. The Official website of the State, http://arunachalpradesh.nic.in has been launched along with websites of 11 districts that provide varied services and information. Government press release, activities of various departments, information on tourism, biodiversity, medicinal plants, tribes, telephone Directory, and downloadable forms are available on these websites. NIC is also providing technical help to many other departments in developing and hosting their websites. ž| Web Based MIS For PHED Web Based MIS for PHED is a major computerization project of the state for which the software development part has been entrusted to NIC/NICSI. Software Design and Development work has been carried out using UML tools under .Net framework, following 3-tier architecture. The project is funded by the Union Ministry of Rural Development under Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission Project. The modules covered under the project are Revenue Collection, Complaint Monitoring, Water Source and Asset Management, Water Quality Management, Material and Stores Management, Habitation Survey Status, Scheme and Programme Management, Equipment Information System, Contractor and Supplier Information System, Personnel and Payroll, Finance and Work Accounting. Presently, the application is under testing and training for 3 batches of employees of PHED has already been conducted. ž| BPL Computerization NIC Arunachal is helping the Department of Rural Development in getting the BPL Survey data validated, merged and compiled for all blocks. A software is also being developed for generating various queries and reports required by the department. ž| Computer Training Centre A state-of-the-art computer training centre of NIC Arunachal has been established at the Civil Secretariat. The centre caters to the computer training needs of State Govt departments/employees and skill enhancement of NIC employees. A training schedule has been prepared to conduct training in a planned and effective manner. ž| Augmentation of Secretariat LAN The Secretariat Wireless LAN is being extended to the HODs of different departments by a project entrusted to NIC/NICSI by Department of Information Technology (DIT). Under this project various departments located outside the Secretariat will be connected using wireless LAN. The wireless nodes will share the existing 2 MBPS leased line gateway connectivity of NIC. ž| Sub-Division Network Project Under this project, the 23 sub-divisions of the state will have network/Internet connectivity. The sites will either have VSAT connectivity or LAN extension, depending upon distance from the nearest CIC. This project will give a boost to e-Governance in the state as many of the Govt. services are offered through SDO offices. ž| State Data Centre A data centre consisting of Secured Network Infrastructure and Storage Area Network (SAN) is being set up in the Civil Secretariat by NIC. Under the State Data Center, it is envisaged to have a state level Application, Database, Mail and Web server along with firewall and authentication server. The capacity of data centre will be 1 TB. ž| Community Information Centre The establishment of CICs has extended the reach of the IT revolution to this region and has a potential to boost all-round development of the state. People from all walks of life namely, students, doctors, teachers, engineers, Govt. officials, businessmen, and general public utilise CICs for their various needs. Some of the services being offered at the CIC are E-mail/Internet, computer awareness trainings, conducting online examinations for CCC course of DOEACC, Govt. to Citizen (G2C) Services such as eSuvidha, Income Certificate issue, BPL survey computerization etc. Local job advertisement is also disseminated through CIC websites. The state government has fixed nominal fees for the services provided by the CICs. ž| AGMARKNET The NICNET Based Agricultural Marketing Information Network (AGMARKNET) facilitates all Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) to disseminate market information for the benefit of farmers and other target groups. AGMARKNET has been implemented in Arunachal Pradesh where six APMCs (Itanagar, Pasighat, Tawang, Roing, Tezu and Ziro) are covered under the project, and as part of the expansion programme, networking of another five APMCs (Miao, Along, Daporijo, Bomdila and Khonsa) and State Agriculture Marketing Board is underway. ž| Video-Conferencing In Arunachal Pradesh, one Video Conferencing Studio is functioning at State Civil Secretariat Complex, Itanagar and similar facilities are coming up at all 16 District HQ of the state and one at the Raj Bhawan. ž| Web Services The website registration and hosting for state government departments is done presently at state-of-the-art NIC HQ web servers. Remote updation facilities are also being provided to the user departments over VPN. NIC Arunachal also undertakes web application development on request from government departments. ž| E-Mail and Internet NIC provides Internet connectivity and e-mail services to government departments. Till now more than 300 e-mail accounts at the local e-mail server http://arun.nic.in have been created for government officials. The mail server is available 24 X 7. It is worth mentioning that the NIC district centres are helping the district administration in various computerization activities, training, Internet connectivity, CIC management and other ICT support. Some district centres have developed and implemented applications like Inner Line Permit, Trade License, Arms License, Succession Certificate etc. Activities of NIC in the state have created an atmosphere for implementation of e-Governance and have paved the way for the State Government and administration to do more in this area. ž| Support of NIC and CIC during elections The conduct of Elections in Arunachal Pradesh is always an uphill task due to acute communication bottlenecks resulting from geographical vastness and difficult terrain of the state. The State and District administrations get important assistance from the NIC Units, which act as information hub during the elections. The CICs are also pressed into service for assisting in the election process under the technical guidance of NIC officers. Moreover, NIC has hosted the website of the Chief Electoral Officer http://ceoarunachal.nic.in, and also contributes in election result transmission under NIC-Doordarshan election result transmission project. All this has enabled in overcoming the difficulties and conduct the elections in a more efficient way.