J&K State comprises of three geographical regions, namely Jammu, the Kashmir valley and Ladakh. Administratively, it is divided into two divisions namely Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu is the winter capital and Srinagar is the summer capital. J&K has 22 Districts of which 8 are newly created. Kashmir valley, known as Paradise on Earth, is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape, Jammu's numerous shrines attract thousands of Hindu and Muslim pilgrims. Ladakh, known as "Little Tibet", is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and Buddhist culture. J &K State Centre of NIC, which was established in 1988, has made tremen- dous contribution in promotion and penetration of Information Technology in various spheres of Administration with special empha- sis on Citizen Centric Services. In this endeavour, it has touched all the major sectors of administration and all Departments, Organisa- tions, Districts and Central Government offices in the state PROJECTS IMPLEMENTED Elections: NIC J&K provided tremendous support at different times for this challenging task under- taken by the state government. In addition to Electoral Rolls, which are available in Urdu, English & Hindi and are regularly updated and pub- lished on the official website (http://ceojammukashmir.nic.in), around 33 Lakh EPIC cards have been generated and distributed out of a total electorate size of around 65 lakhs. During the Vidhan Sabha Polls 2008 and Lok Sabha Polls 2009 sup- port was provided for vital activities like making available candidates' information, affidavits hosting, results processing, Randomization of Polling Parties and Randomization of Electronic Voting Machines, Communication Plan, Video- Conferencing etc. Transport: "Comprehensive e- Governance solution for Transport Department in Jammu and Kashmir", an ambitious project initi- ated in 2004 for implementation of SARATHI and VAHAN, has been very successful. Out of 22 districts, it has been implemented in 8 RTO/ARTO offices and has been initiated in the remaining 14 RTO/ARTO offices. Very soon Smart Card based Registration certificates and Driving Licenses will be issued. Municipalities: J&K Municipalities Automation Package (JAKMAP), a comprehensive suite of ten applica- tions covering Birth & Death Registration, Payroll & GPF Accounting, Human Resource Information System, Assets Management, Single Window System, Court Cases Monitoring System, and Complaint Monitoring System, Accrual Based Double Entry System, Website etc, has been implemented in both the Municipal Corporations of Jammu and Srinagar and has been a boon for the citizens. Judiciary: NIC has carried out ICT enablement support at both wings of High Court at Jammu and Srinagar since early 90's, through state of art infrastructure. Key functions such as List of Business Information System, including Case Filing, Registration & Case allocation and Orders/Judgments of the Cases, are being maintained. Staff at Civil Secretariat Treasury in Cause Lists, Case Status and Judgments are easily accessible to Litigants, Advocates and General Public. People in the remotest corners of the state are also able to access the information through Interactive Voice Response System, about the status of case . Besides this, ICT support has also been provided for activities like Library Computerization, Pay Roll System, Maintenance of Website and providing regular trainings to the Officers/Officials. NIC J&K State Unit, in consultation and guidance of e-Committee, success- fully embarked upon e-Courts project, covering District and Lower courts. It is being rolled out across the state at 76 locations including 22 District Courts and 54 Taluka courts. FINANCE Department of Accounts and Treasuries : JAKTMIS (J&K Treasury Management Information System) is a workflow based transaction processing system running smoothly in 4 treasur- ies on pilot basis. It takes care of all pay- ment and receipt transaction process- ing from counter level to accounting stage. All the reports required by AG office and Treasury, including internal registers and ledgers, are generated by the system. Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS): Treasury Computerization being a Mission Mode Project under the National e- Governance Plan, IFMS is the latest ini- tiative in this direction. It covers com- puterization of all the Treasuries, Budget Distribution System and Government Receipt Accounting System in J&K which is hooked to the central server. It has been developed by NIC Pune and customized as per the requirements of J&K government. Fund Organization: The project GenProfit System has been developed and implemented for Fund Organiza- tion, which involves Computerization of subscriptions made by the state Govt. employees since 1986 with the Fund Office. Initially computerization of GPF details of secretariat employees were taken. NIC J&K helped in formulating ICT policy by way of financial support sys- tem and evolving the standards for the rules and procedures, on way to various automation systems through Business Process Re-engineering. This helped in transforming the Fund organization into a user-friendly office disseminating information through web portal (http://jkfunds.nic.in ). A Unique 9 digit code is allotted for around 4.5 Lakh sub- scribers in the whole of J&K State. It has been successfully implemented in 19 out of 26 locations, and is being taken up in the remaining. Details of more than 75,000 employees of police department are also available. Excerpt of the message from Hon'ble CM of J&K, JANAB OMAR ABDULLAH NATIONAL INFORMATICS Centre (NIC) has played a critical role in launching Information Technology Initiatives in the Government. During the recent devastation in Leh caused by the sudden cloudburst and flash- floods, the NIC provided the much needed connec- tivity in very trying and difficult circumstances. The State Government was able to launch an online complaint monitor- ing portal in the Chief Minister's Office which enables people to register the grievances which are expeditiously attended and disposed off-. We expect NIC to provide support to the Government in its future effort to make gover- nance efficient and trans- parent. I do hope that the mag- azine being published by NIC would focus on and highlight the best prac- tices in the use of Information Technology for good governance. Excise Department: Jammu and Kashmir Excise Management Information System (JKEMIS), devel- oped and being implemented by NIC J&K, covers the Excise related process- es of distilleries. It includes the captur- ing of documents electronically from all the distilleries and its processing at Excise department. The processed information is sent back electronically to the various distilleries. It has enabled the department to remotely monitor the working of the distilleries thus bringing a new era of electronical- ly handling the functioning of Excise Department. Power: NIC state Centre Jammu Developed the J&K Revenue Management through computerized Energy billing system (JKRMCE) for Power Development Department (PDD) is in place at 75 Sub-divisions and in queue at 25 other Sub-divisions. It has resulted in the automation of the process of bill generation and rev- enue management of the cash collect- ed at the banks. It has brought quali- tative & quantitative change in Departmental Services factored by the use of IT at different levels of opera- tions and delivery of error free energy bills to the consumers. Community Information Centres (CIC) Project: it has been successful- ly implemented in 132 of the 135 Blocks of the state, for the benefit of local communities at grassroot level, thus bridging the digital divide. The benefit of these centres is attributed to the fact that the locations are very remote and the terrain hilly and diffi- cult. The services being offered by the CICs are Computer Education & Trainings, Internet Browsing & E-mail, and Community/Citizen Centric Services. Passport Offices at Jammu & Srinagar: NIC is also providing full ICT support to Passport Offices in Jammu and Srinagar. Around 180 applications are received in Jammu office on daily basis for issuance of fresh, renewal, duplicate and addi- tional booklet cases. Besides issuance of passports, miscellaneous services like change of residence, date of birth, name, ECNR status, PCC, addition/deletion of spouse name, change of photographs etc. are also being rendered. Passport Office Srinagar in collaboration with NIC has started SMS enquiry system for pass- port applicants of Kashmir Division. Rajbhawan Jammu/Srinagar: NIC has placed its manpower at Rajbhawan Jammu/Srinagar and providing full ICT support to Rajbhawan. Computer Centres at both the places are estab- lished by NIC and 2MBPS leased con- nectivity also provided. GENERAL PURPOSE PROJECTS Online Public Grievance Monitoring System: Awaz-e-Awam (http://jkgrievance.nic.in) is an initia- tive of the responsive administration to reach out to the masses by making use of technology. It is a web based system for public grievances redressal in a transparent, accountable and time-bound manner. A new concept in this hilly state, it is a nice way of inter- acting with the government without having to actually visit any govern- ment office. A Call Centre for public grievances redressal is established in Chief Minister's Office, which is being looked after by NIC. All the offices of Government, including universities, are connected with the system. User, after registra- tion, gets the unique complaint num- ber which helps in tracking the status of the complaint. File Monitoring System (FMS): FMS a web based application, has been implemented in the Civil Secretariat Jammu/Srinagar. Accessible over LAN, It has become very convenient to track a file and also monitor the status of files with the subordinates, which has resulted in bringing in efficiency. Centralized Pay Package: This pack- age is implemented in the Secretariat as well as other departments/offices outside the Secretariat and is being very effectively used. This package is also being used by the District Administrations. APR Monitoring System: APRMS has been developed and implemented in Home Department for the monitor- ing of the Annual progress reports of all Police Officers by the Home Department, Jammu and Kashmir Govt. It is a web-based application, which proved to be of immense help to the Department, in keeping track of huge volume of APRs. VIP Security Deployment: This soft- ware has been developed and imple- mented for Security wing of J&K Police. Keeping in view the swallowing list of VIPs /Protectees in the state, including Political and Government VIPs, a need was felt to have a system to effectively monitor the allotment of Security Guards, Residential guards, Access control, vehicles, fuel etc. very helpful in effective monitoring of these arrangements. Challan Management Information System (TMIS): TMIS is under imple- mentation at each SSP / SP office where the challan details provided in a stipulated format by each Challaning officer will be consolidated. This data from is then forwarded to the central server at IG (Traffic) level. Various Reports / Queries are generated at the IG level, which is of immense help in implementing and deciding the tech- niques/policies to improve the traffic scenario in the state and also keep a check on the habitual offenders. Personnel Information System (PIS): This package is hosted locally on NIC Server and is in use by 9 depart- ments located in the Civil Secretariat and by few others in Districts. It facili- tates speedy retrieval of service details of the employees. Web-Services: In addition to websites of most of the departments of the state government, NIC J&K has developed and hosted websites of all the 14 Districts of the state. Below Poverty Line [BPL] Census: The software for data entry of Below Poverty Line Survey has been developed and implemented for Rural Development Department. Data entry of BPL beneficiaries for all 14 districts completed and a web site for dynamic search of BPL records has been devel- oped and is being hostied. VIDEO CONFERENCING SERVICES PROVIDED DURING LEH CLOUD BURST During the recent Leh Cloud burst when there was no means of communi- cation left between Leh and rest of the world, NIC Leh, NIC Kargil, NIC Srinagar and NIC Delhi came forward and provided yeomen services through the facility of Video Conferencing. The services were extensively used by J&K state administration to assess the loss and monitor relief and rescue opera- tions that were going on in Leh. Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Revenue Secretary J&K Govt, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar and OSD with Divisional Commissioner Kashmir laud- ed the VC facilities of NIC after the nat- ural calamity. Excerpt of the letter from Commissioner/Secretary IT of J&K, SH. ATAL DULLO, IAS IN THE STATE OF JAMMU & Kashmir, the NIC has been actively participating in various e-Governance projects. They have done lot of good work in conceiving and implementing the projects in different sectors which needs to be appreciated. They have also been assisting the IT Department in a number of e-Governance projects. At present the state of Jammu & Kashmir is focusing on implementation of core infrastructure projects like Data Centre, SWAN etc. as well as on delivery of Citizen Centric Services. In this endeavour, NIC is expected to play an important role in helping the state to achieve these objectives. I wish the NIC team all success in their efforts in facilitating the implementation of e-Governance projects. INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES Network Operations Centre (NOC) Jammu: A NOC is established at Civil Secretariat Jammu, to keep a round the clock vigil on the network infrastruc- ture to ensure 24*7 services all through the year. Specialist team of NOC guar- antees a fast response time to all critical issues thus providing full uptime. DATA Centre: NIC J&K has a Data Centre with storage capacity of 2 TB. District Centres: LAN established at all the 14 Districts Offices in J&K and all Centres are connected through 2 Mbps leased line. Video Conferencing: VC setup has been established and is operational in the 14 old Districts of the state and is in full use for day to day interactions. Accolades Recently NIC J&K has bagged the pres- tigious Wisitex ICT Ratan 2010 award for providing excellent e- Governance services and spreading ICT culture in the state of J&K. For further information Abhay Kumar State Informatics Officer NIC J&K State Unit NB-12 Mini Secretariat Jammu (J&K)-180001 Ph: 0191-2546672/2547720 sio-jk@nic.in