We are all aware that most of our NIC State Units in the country were established in the year 1987. However, some of you may not know that NIC offices were operational since 1977 at Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai as IPAG/NIC Cells with the Head quarters at New Delhi.
Intel 8080 based Micro Computer (Micro 78 of ECIL) was the first system to be installed in NIC, Chennai. The system had just 64 Kilo Bytes of RAM and was used for processing more than 4000 records (punched cards) of Chennai Customs everyday and for generating various daily and monthly reports. NIC District Units were established in 20 districts in 1988. At present there are 29 NIC District Units and the centre at the newly created Ariyalur district is expected to be established by Dec 2001.
Major projects for State Government
NIC Tamil Nadu State Unit functions in close coordination with Government of Tamil Nadu in promoting IT applications. Some of the important current projects include the following:
Taluk Information System is implemented in 206 taluks in the State. Land Records and Old Age Pension Disbursal System are major applications together with other applications such as Grievances, Certificates, Licenses, Payroll, Personnel, etc.
Registration System is implemented in 125 offices. Use of Tamil, as in the case of Land Records, is a feature of this package entitled STAR (Simplified and Transparent Administration of Registration). The present version of the software is in VB/SQL Server. One Server with around four clients is installed in these offices.
The web site created for Registration department (http://igregn.tn.nic.in) hosts the Guideline Value for all the streets in six Municipal Corporations (Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem and Tirunelveli). The web site also provides the facility to estimate the Stamp Duty involved in registering a Flat or a House in these Municipal Corporations.
Commercial Tax Assessment Circles computerisation has been taken up in 140 offices. Most of these offices are capturing monthly collection details using the system. One client system is installed in all these offices.
The Treasury system is implemented in 205 Sub Treasuries, 29 District Treasuries, 7 PAOs and one Pension Pay Office. It is one of the initial applications with DOS systems at Sub Treasuries and Unix at other offices.
Chief Minister’s Special Cell handles more than 1000 petitions per day and the centre uses more than 20 terminals to follow-up on the actions taken on petitions. Information System on Prisoners is getting implemented in nine central prisons in the state. Admissions, Court Hearing, History and Remission are some of the major modules of the system.
NIC is maintaining the Secretariat LAN which has more than 250 nodes and hosts the Tamil Nadu Government Web Site. The network centre has Web Servers, an Email Server and Proxy Servers.
Most of the offices make use of the NICNET services for transmission of periodical data for MIS applications and messages.
Special Projects
NIC Tamil Nadu has been working in close coordination with various Divisions at Headquarters and has also taken up the responsibility for development and implementation of some national level projects in consultation with concerned Group Heads at headquarters.
Common Software for Export Processing Zones has been developed in consultation with Commerce Informatics Division at HQ for use at the national level. The package named as EXPRESS (EXport Processing Executive Support System), developed with Madras Export Processing Zone as pilot office, has been implemented in all other Zones in the country (Vizag, Cochin,SEEPZ, Noida, Kandla and Falta).
Cash Certificates Accounting System has been developed for the use of Postal Accounts section of Department of Posts. The package PATRAM (Postal Accounts Transaction Monitoring system) is in use at Tamil Nadu Circle and is to be implemented in other Circles in the country.
Block level version of RuralSoft is a generalised system for use in all states at the Block and Village Panchayat offices of the Rural Development department. The system provides exhaustive reporting and querying options with facilities to add new schemes.
Sh. Kathirselvam,DIO,Pudukkotai receiving the award on NIC's behalf from the Collector, Pudukkotai
Panchayat Raj Institutions Accounting Software (PriaSoft) is another generalised software developed in consultation with Rural Informatics Division which can be used at the District, Block and Village Panchayat offices of the Rural Development Department.
Best use is made of GIS tools in consultation with the GIS Division of NIC. SPANS Web Server was used to host the Elections 2001 results which can be viewed at http://gisd.tn.nic.in/election2001
Tamil Nadu Maps site (http://tnmaps.tn.nic.in) provides district, taluk and block boundaries with list of Revenue Villages, Panchayat Villages, Towns and Municipalities. A Link is provided to the District Profiles together with contact details of the Collectors. One may also look at the contact details of all the District Informatics Officers at the URL http://tnmaps.tn.nic.in/dios.
Web Services
Web Services are amongst the most sought after services at present and NIC Tamil Nadu Unit has developed many sites in consultation with NIC HQ, some of which are listed below.
NIC is maintaining the TN Government Home Page (http://www.tn.gov.in) which gets updated almost on daily basis. It has the following documents:
Government Orders of Public interest Citizens Charter of various departments Policy Notes Public Utility Forms Statistical Handbook Monthly TN Economy Reports State Government Telephone directory Contact details of important functionaries Tenders and advertisements Pensioners Guide
Website of State Transport Authority (http://www.tn.gov.in/sta)provides large number of Forms used by the department in pdf format.
Fire & Rescue Services site gives tips on Fire Fighting in addition to the details on their services. (http://www.tn.nic.in/fireservice)
Directorate of Estates, Chennai is maintaining a waiting list status for allotment for Govt accomodation (http://www.tn.nic.in/estate)
Chennai Passport Office site (http://passport.tn.nic.in) provides facility for entering the Passport Application details online. At present this facility is extended to registered Travel Agents. Every day more than 300 applications are being received through the web which reduces the waiting time at the counters while submitting the forms. Application Status Enquiry facility is available for public.
Some of the GISTNIC database contents are mirrored / redesigned and hosted at http://gistnic.tn.nic.in.
District Centres
The District Centres are the pillars of NIC. The District Officers assist in promoting IT culture and spreading the same at the grass root levels. Apart from implementation of the systems, they are actively involved in developing systems which are horizontally used in other districts. The district officers in various District Centres of Tamil Nadu have contributed the most in development of applications such as Pension Disbursal System, Grievances Monitoring, DISNIC-PLANmodules, Health department systems, Taluk modules and many NICNET based applications, which were developed by some districts and used in all the districts.
National level Projects
The following are some of the important offices in the State where national level projects have been implemented:
Passport Offices at Chennai and Trichy Registrar of Companies at Chennai and Coimbatore DGFT Offices at Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai Central Excise Commissionerates at Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and their Divisional Offices Customs at Chennai (Air & Sea Ports) and Tuticorin High Court at Chennai PLI System for Department of Posts Press Information Bureau
NICNET Services
C200 VSAT was installed in NIC Tamil Nadu in the year 1987. With the advancement in technology, the centre now has FTDMA/IPA VSATs and DirecPC VSATs installed in all districts.
NIC Tamil Nadu’s and NITPU’s services are offered from the same location in Chennai . Apart from the use of VSATs for Email and Internet services, Chennai office has a 1 Mbps Internet gateway through VSNL, Chennai. The facility is extended through RF links to nine locations in the city.
NIC Chennai has also organised and participated in many Video Conferencing sessions . Based on the demonstration given on Tele-Justice applications, the Government of Tamil Nadu has approved in principle to use the VC facilities in Courts and Prisons. In a session held for Women Development Corporation, the officers from IFAD, Rome interacted with the women beneficiaries and project implementing officers who were present in the NIC VC studio at Chennai.
NIC Tamil Nadu has, in addition, been actively supporting the State Govt during Elections. This exercise of Election Data Transmission was conducted for the first time in January 1989 in Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections in which the newly installed C200 VSATs were used at districts for transmitting data to Doordarshan.
Training
Training is an important activity at all NIC centres in Tamil Nadu. There are three well equipped training centres in Chennai. More than 1700 participants benefited during the last one year in Chennai alone apart from the large number of hands-on training being given by the District centres.
The progress from a 64 KB RAM computer system to 128 MB RAM desktop systems is an indication of the exponential growth of computer technology. It also highlights the varied and continued services that NIC Tamil Nadu has been offering for government institutions.
In the words of Shri P Shankar, Chief Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu:
“NIC has been of immense help to Government to usher in E-Governance in the State and we look to their continued assistance for extending it to all spheres for better public service”
Sh. P Shankar, Chief Secretary,Govt of Tamil Nadu visiting NIC Stall at CONNECT 2001 exhibition