Continuing its grand success at the Oracle e-Governance Awards and the 9th National e-Governance Awards in the first quarter of 2006, NIC has once again proved that its e-Governance solutions are at par with the Global IT standards. In the recently held Stockholm Challenge 2006 Awards at Stockholm Sweden, five NIC projects were adjudged as finalists in their respective categories. The Stockholm Challenge programme is a well established global networking program for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) entrepreneurs for over ten years. It focuses on ICT for development in underserved parts of the world with an objective to highlight ICT implementations that have benefited the people and are based on sustainable business models. NIC projects - ‘OpenMED’@NIC, ’AGMARKENT’, ‘HIMBHOOMI’, ‘SETU’ & ‘LOKVANI’ were among the 151 finalist selected from 53 countries. Dr N Vijayaditya, DG, Ms Naina Pandita, Sr. Technical Director, and Mr. A.P. Singh, District Informatics Officer, Sitapur represented NIC in the project workshops held during the event. The ‘LOKVANI’ project of NIC Uttar Pradesh received a special mention during the award ceremony from the chairman of the jury. Lokvani (An e-ffort to empower citizen through e-Governance) is a single window e-Governance system for providing transparent, accountable and responsive government administration for Redressal of Public Grievances, Land Record Maintenance and much more. The project not only generates employment for educated local youth but also brings in a sense of social security within the community and opens up avenues for ICT based development in rural areas. It is based on the PPP model where people can access government information and file complaints to the District Authorities by paying nominal fixed charges through the registered Lokvani Kiosks. The system keeps track of the complaints lodged and the status is available on the Internet or can be accessed through the IVR/SMS System. OpenMED is an open access & discipline based International archive for Medical and Allied Sciences where authors/owners can self-archive their scientific and technical documents. It seeks to encourage self-archiving culture amongst medical professionals in India, preserve valuable research publications for future medical researchers and publicize research activities being carried out in the country. The system accepts both published and unpublished documents having relevance to research in Medical and Allied Sciences including Bio-Medical, Medical Informatics, Dental, Nursing and Pharmaceutical Science and provides free service to academics, researchers, and students for archiving or viewing the documents. AGMARKNET (Agricultural Marketing Information Network) is aimed at empowering farming community with the knowledge of latest commodity prices and arrivals information through innovative usage of ICT by networking agricultural produce wholesale markets in the country. AGMARKNET links up Mandis, State Agricultural Marketing Boards and Directorates in the country and provides online information on prices of over 300 major commodities. Farmers can access these rates from the Mandi itself or from the nearest Community Information Centre. The project has played a catalytic role in ushering in market led agricultural extension in India. The prices and arrivals information is already being disseminated in eight Indian languages apart from English to enhance the reach of the portal. SETU is a friendly interface and service provider between Public and Government for issuance of various Government certificates/permissions/licenses. The system has gone a long way in empowering citizens through easy dissemination of Information and has increased the confidence of citizens in the administrative processes. More than 64 types of certificates /permits/ licenses are being accepted & issued from the Citizens Facilitation Centre (CFC) located at six different Offices of Collector, SDM, BDO, RTO, Tahsil and Taluka Inspector of Land Records. These centres provide the applicant a facility to complete all formalities under one roof. More than 1 lakh certificates/permits/ licenses have already been issued from the SETU centre located at Nanded, which is the first in the state to receive ISO 9001:2000 certificate for Quality Management System. HimBhoomi (Land Records Computerisation) Software for Himachal Pradesh is a work flow application that computerizes the complete Revenue System. Be it land records of rural & urban areas, land reforms, irrigation census details, agriculture census statistics, customary and forestry rights, the project seeks to provide a solution for all these activities. The project has played a significant role by not only standardizing the land records documents, procedures and implementation of various acts & policies but has also made life easy for people by making available legible records of rights (ROR) in time. The online mutation module keeps track of all the various mutations/transactions on any piece of land and has helped the administration in their daily work. (http://www.himachal.nic.in/himbhoomi) Skoch Challenger Awards 2006 Skoch Summit over the years has emerged as the most prestigious and respected annual confluence for Indian IT Industry consisting of central and state government functionaries, academia, IT industry, economists, NGOs, analysts and users. The Skoch Challenger awards recognize and acknowledge excellence and exemplary efforts made by individuals and organizations for their contribution in key areas such as e-Governance, Banking & Financial Services, Education, ICT penetration, affordable computing & innovation. Every year hundreds of “best-in-class” contenders compete for recognition at the Skoch Challenger Awards. NIC’s contribution in the field of good governance through ICT, the impact of its projects on changing people’s lives, and the exemplary use of ICT in areas of social transformation was recognized and appreciated by a number of awards during 9th Annual Skoch Summit held in March 2006 at New Delhi. Dr. N. Vijayaditya, DG NIC was presented the Skoch Challenger award for NIC’s technical contribution to ‘Rural Delivery Systems’ through many projects/initiatives such as Warana, CIC, GyanDoot, LokMitra, e-Panchayat, InfoGram, e-Grama, Akshaya, Rural e-Seva, e-Suvidha, Rural Digital Services, Land Records Computerisation, RuralSoft, PriaSoft, NREGA Information System, DDWS/PHED/RWSS Information System etc. The Editors Choice Awards for technical conceptualization, implementation and sustaining support on operationalisation were conferred on Panchayati Raj Computerisation (e-PRI/e-Panchayat), National Panchayat Portal (http://Panchayat.nic.in) and AGMARKNET (http://agmarknet.nic.in). Many other projects such as Judiciary Computerisation, Rural e-Seva and CIC led initiatives in Sikkim, where NIC has contributed technically, also won the Skoch Challenger Awards 2006 DG NIC felicitated at International Event Dr N Vijayaditya, Director General NIC was felicitated by ESRI at their 26th Annual ESRI International User Conference recently held in San Diego (USA). DG NIC was conferred the ‘Distinguished Service’ in GIS Award as a recognition for making a difference. The conference was attended by 14,000 ESRI users, scientists, engineers, and students from 200 countries around the world. This event focuses on how GIS technology can better serve the world and our communities, and is the largest GIS event in the world. Dr Vandana Sharma, Senior Technical Director, NIC was also amongst the recipients of the prestigious award. We, the NICians are proud of such achievements and must strive to achieve more in terms of meaningful contributions to the society at large through ICT interventions. For further information, contact : anshu.rohatgi@nic.in