Celebrating Twenty Five Glorious Years
NIC Rajasthan is celebrating silver jubilee of its establishment this year. The celebrations have started and the long journey with ups and downs has been quite fruitful. Today with the efforts of team NIC, the state of Rajasthan is surging ahead as a leader in e-Governance and ICT development, covering a wide gamut of applications as an ever important asset and resource of Government administration. Today, it has a staff of 77 in Jaipur and a total staff of 134 in Rajasthan. The Journey of 25 years NIC Rajasthan’s journey towards excellence has been very exciting and full of challenges. Beginning from a very small room of 180 sq ft in the Chief Minister’s office at Secretariat Jaipur, with a staff of four in 1988, NIC Rajasthan has grown many folds and has reached out to the remote parts of the state. NICNET, starting from 256/512 Kbps VSAT network is now providing Gbps/Mbps connectivity to over 300 locations like the District Collectorates, Post Offices, Ministry offices, Government Buildings, universities, colleges, tehsils and various parts of the state. Apart from this a large number of offices are provided with connectivity to NICNET with VPN over broadband. There are many successful projects that have been implemented during the past 25 years. Using NICNET for the election results telecast with Doordarshan and the support provided by the NIC district centres in the computerization of election activities was the first major milestone. Now, the election process and systems developed by NIC are almost integrated. Rajasthan achieved new heights in innovative use of software which won several accolades nationally and internationally. First time, the Primary Census Abstract, Population Census 1991 was released in a short period of one and half year in 1991. Computerization of treasuries within a short span of time was also a reckoning moment. Monitoring of the revenue campaigns for the CM’s office in the 90’s using software demonstrated the capability of NICNET when the weekly field level figure were available on the fourth day from the camps at villages, since then it has become a regular monitoring mechanism. It was computerization of Land Records, which made NIC realize the gigantic efforts required to build IT enabled systems in government. It appeared to be an impossible situation and whole of “NIC Rajasthan” was converted to “NIC Land Records”. But the efforts payed of and the landmark in the history of Revenue Department has been realized. Because of the unabated confidence in NIC put fotrh by the Revenue Minister, Revenue Department and Chairman Board of Revenue that in 2003 Rajasthan became the first state to place the entire state’s LR data on the Internet and established Apna Khata Kendra (kiosks). Similarly, Rajasthan was the first state to declare Board of Secondary Education results on NICNET and provided it to the schools in remote areas on the same day. It was the first direct interaction with youth of the state which introduced sudden peaks of load on server resources. Video Conference facilities in the state were established using high speed Ku-band VSATs way back in 1995, which was inaugurated by then Hon’ble Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Shri Pranab Mukharjee. NIC introduced email and Internet as an alternate mode of communication among the exporters in the state using Ku-Band network. First Video Conference was conducted in SMART Governance conference at Birla Auditorium, Jaipur between the Chief Secretary and Director General NIC, which left all audiences mesmerized. Processing and release of BPL census 2002 data on the Internet and building application for its online updation, was first of its kind in India. The most recent milestone was proof of concept of rural connectivity in ten Gram Panchayats in Ajmer district which made its mark nationally as well as internationally. SUGAM for grievances redressal and service delivery for nearly 30 services was rolled out in six months time. Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS), EGRAS, Old age Pension, NSAP, SSA, Pre Teacher Entrance Test Counseling or PTET, AIEEE Counseling, Medical & Health, Education, Mid Day Meal Monitoring System (MDM), Online Answering System for Rajasthan Assembly or OASYS, Pregnancy, Child Tracking & Health Services Management System or PCTS, etc. have all played their important role in shaping the e-Governance regime in the state of Rajasthan. Rajasthan High Court of Judicature, though started late in 1995 on the path of computerization, became one of the leading high courts to deploy IT solutions in each section. Today the litigants, lawyers, students, citizens all benefit from these systems. Some novel experiments like setting up of query counters, cause list, Judgments, interim orders on Internet, integration with SMS gateway, Display boards have proved to be the path-breakers. NIC State Unit Rajasthan has witnessed positive change and a proactive approach under the guidance of the Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Ashok Gahlot and the Chief Secretary Shri C.K. Mathew for process re-engineering and introduction of a strong Feedback Monitoring System by frequent meetings with the field functionaries through video conferencing. Rajasthan is among the foremost states in utilizing the VC services to the full extent. The systems have been established for day to day monitoring of special administrative campaigns to reach out to the citizens, aptly supported by software systems to allow daily flow of information such that common figures are available across the government from the highest office to the lowest field units. Such systems have paved the way for seamless integration between policy making administration and IT support systems. evenTs marking The celebraTion of silver Jubilee year Year 2013-2014 is very important for NIC Rajasthan State Unit and many activities have been planned to mark the occasion. It started with the release of logo by the Union Minister of the State at Jaipur. Other events that will continue are: sporting events, slogan competition, get-togethers, felicitation programmes, lectures, seminars and other activities. There are plans to release a special document on NIC Rajasthan achievements on the occasion. some Proud momenTs When Hon’ble Chief Minister, Shri Ashok Gehlot walked into NIC office on a holiday in 1999 and discussed various activities undertaken by NIC, the guidance and appreciation from the highest quarters of the State Government has been a great morale booster for the team NIC. A remarkable moment came when the former Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje gave an opportunity to give a presentation of e-GRAM project, a unique data base of all the basic amenities in each village, at the Ministers’ conference at CMO at a very short notice and herself explained some points. NIC Rajasthan established immigration system at Munabao Railway station in Barmer, near Pakistan border, which is a remote place in the desert. It was a chilling experience working there late in the nights with no human population around. The VC session of NIC Rajasthan with the US President Mr Barack Obama and Shri Sam Pitroda from Kanpura (Ajmer) in the presence of the then Hon’ble Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Shri Sachin Pilot was a memorable event for NIC Rajasthan. NIC Rajasthan won two National e-Governance Awards at Bhubhneshwar at the same time for Pregnancy, Child Tracking & Health Services Management System or PCTS and OASYS projects. The awards and accolades given to NIC Rajasthan especially Manthan Award South Asia for e-Gram, are always special and cherished. fuTure Plans Some of the key projects which would be rolled out shortly are: Electronic Record Rooms for the Revenue Department, Digitization of the maps, Online Real Time Revenue Records, Mobile Applications, Procurement Portal, Electronic Benefit Transfer, Electronic Government Receipts, Data Mining, Open Data Portals, Right to Education Portal etc. The key focus will be on integrating the accumulated data with decision making and policy planning. NIC Rajasthan has deployed GIS tools for education data to assist in identifying new school locations. Most of the applications have been built in local language and will be ready with bilingual data sets. NIC Rajasthan is highly indebted to the support and confidence extended by the Rajasthan Government. The focal point of the next version of e-Governance is citizens, quality and availability of service- anytime anywhere, sharing of data across stakeholders and across various platforms, data mining and analytics. NIC Rajasthan is constantly moving ahead to embrace new technologies like mobile technology, cloud computing, virtualization and nationally taking lead in several areas like Medical-Health, Finance, Public distribution system, Courts, Legislative Assembly , Education etc to name a few. We know that the road ahead is full of challenges, lots of efforts are required but the successes and failures, struggle and challenges have given us the confidence to surge ahead and explore new frontiers in e-Governance in tandem with the state policies.