Garlanded by Ganga and Yamuna, the two pious rivers of Indian mythology, Uttar Pradesh is a rainbow land where multi-hued Indian culture has blossomed from time immemorial. U.P. is the most populous and area wise, the fourth largest state of India. Its administration requires managing 17 Divisions, 73 revenue Districts, 140 tehsils, 98,153 villages and a vast population of over 166 million spread over diverse geographical regions. The complexity of administering the state presents equally challenging opportunities for NIC in U.P. Since its inception in 1988, NIC UP State Unit has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to introduce IT culture & Internet services in the state, and is credited with pioneering many IT activities in the government departments.
NIC's Major Achievements in U.P
UPNICNET : UP-NICNET is one of the ambitious MAN implementation by NIC UP State Unit over NICNET, consisting of approx. 1000 nodes in the state capital Lucknow. It uses Hybrid technology e.g., VSAT, RF, OFC, ISDN and POTS connecting 13 important buildings including Governor House, Assembly House, all the secretariat buildings & other state-owned Government buildings. UP-NICNET is a resource-shared project on a 50:50 basis between NIC and Govt. of U.P. The State Government is using all the important services i.e. Internet, FTP, Desktop VC, e-mail services to make its functions e-enabled. UP-NICNET is running smoothly since 1999, and is ever expanding.
Videoconferencing setup: "Sir, I wish to present the VC setup in the entire state ...." said Shri. Rajnath Singh, Chief Minister to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India during the inaugural Videoconferencing session in the state on 2nd October’2001. NIC UP State Unit earned wide applause from all quarters & the distinction of inter-connecting all the districts of the state within two and a half months by the given deadline. The State Government is actively using NIC’s 73-node state-of-the-art DAMA based VC network in the state, right from day one. The usage of the facility got another shot in the arm, when Hon’ble PM on 2nd January’2002, visited NIC’s VC Studio at 5 Kalidas Marg, the official residence of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh It was indeed a proud moment for NIC. Present on the occasion were H.E. the Governor and the Hon’ble CM of the state. NIC’s technical capabilities and services were fully demonstrated when the V.V.I.P. dignitaries interacted over VC with few district officials, selected at random.
IT Vision Group : The Government of U.P. is making a paradigm shift: from e-government to e-governance. Director General (DG, NIC) and State Informatics Officer (SIO, UP) represent NIC in the IT Vision Group of the state headed by Chief Minister, UP. IT Vision Group has been setup to shape and review IT related policies and issues in the state of U.P.
Judiciary : NIC has taken steps towards making the judiciary of U.P. into e-judiciary in the state. NIC U.P. State Unit has laboured hard to introduce full automation at Allahabad High Court, its Lucknow bench and the district courts covering almost all facets of legal activity in the state. Apart from the dissemination of information through the web site http://allahabadhighcourt.nic.in, a computerized "Public Judicial Enquiry Counter" at Allahabad High Court & its Lucknow bench caters to the information needs of the litigants coming from far away places in the state. NIC UP State Unit is now focusing all its strengths towards speedy computerization of 54 district courts in the state.
E-Governance Initiatives
Automation of Government Treasuries : ITSANIC (Integrated Treasury System Application of NIC) in Oracle RDBMS on Linux platform evolved as the most economical possible IT solution for the Treasuries Department by NIC UP State Unit. The project running since 1994 has seen many technological innovations and is a successful implementation at 90 sites in both the states of Uttar Pradesh & Uttaranchal. The basic objective of ITSANIC is to facilitate online voucher acceptance, its validation, checking of budget classification, bill passing, unit level budget checking, online cheque printing, accounts preparation for UP’s Accountant General (A.G.) etc. The web-site http:// upgov.up.nic.in/uptreasuries linking the data from all the treasuries in the state makes the U.P. Treasuries to have a web presence, the first of its kind in the country.
Online Transport System : The project running successfully at Regional Transport Office (RTO), Lucknow is ready to be launched at twenty-five other sites of the state in a phased manner. Except for issuing driving licenses, the project has automated all major activities of the Transport Department of Uttar Pradesh, viz., vehicle’s registration, permit, enforcement and taxation activities. Automation at the office of State Transport Authority (STA) at the state transport department’s headquarters in Lucknow, where inter-state & inter-region road permits are issued, as well as computerization at the office of Transport Commissioner, have also been initiated. In the words of Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh, the state’s Transport Minister: "Automation of Transport Department in U.P. is the first of its kind among State Government’s citizen-interface departments, where an ordinary citizen through computerized services at the counters, is the direct beneficiary of the State Government’s I.T. initiatives",
Land Records Computerization : NIC has successfully tested in district Etawah, dissemination of land records information through the net. Another pilot project of integrating "Record of Right" and cadastral village map is underway and very soon the farmers can access village maps as well as the related land records data on the net. Board of Revenue of Uttar Pradesh also has plans to distribute copies of Khatauni (Record of Right) to the farmers through the computers being installed at tehsil headquarters in the state. NIC UP State Unit and its District centres are providing total IT solutions for the project.
Pensioners Information System : Running in all the 73 treasuries of U.P. and 17 treasuries of Uttaranchal, this software is used for pensioner database, calculation of first pension, monthly pension etc. Through the website of the treasuries http://upgov.up.nic.in/uptreasuries, our respected senior citizens as pensioners of Government of U.P. are now able to see their payment details right from their homes.
Lucknow Nagar Nigam : NIC UP has taken up pilot project implementation for Lucknow Nagar Nigam (Municipal Corporation). Its objective is to build a database on houses located under municipal area, tax liabilities due to the corporation and defaulters, deaths and births registrations, generation of instantaneous reports etc., as well as web-enabling some of its activities
Land Registry : NIC UP State Unit made a thorough study of the software being implemented by NIC State Units of Punjab and Haryana, and owes lots of gratitude for their support. The software received from them has been tuned to the needs of the Govt. of U.P and efforts are being made to implement it in the five pilot districts of the state as a citizen interface project.
Chief Minister’s Grievance Monitoring System : The grievances received from general public are monitored through NIC’s File Monitoring Software throughout the state, including the office of Hon’ble Chief Minister of U.P. The system generates timely reminders and keeps track of file movement and action taken upon.
Chief Minister’s Ghoshna(Announcement) System : This unique project helps the Chief Minister's Office and his secretariat in monitoring the progress of CM’s announcements regarding welfare and development schemes for the state.
District Statistical Handbook (Sankhiyikiya Patrika) : NIC UP State Unit has created a database of District Statistical Handbooks of all the districts of the state, which has a wealth of data on important economic parameters of the respective districts for the last 10 years. NIC UP State Unit has implemented data mining using OLAP.
Other Significant Projects
● Election Management System
● Uniform Payroll System, compulsory for all the State Government departments
● Budget Computerization, and its availability on the web
● MIS for monitoring 20-point programmes and District Plan
● Allotment of State Government accommodation
● Vidhan Sabha Library Computerization
● Computerization of Department of Rural Development
● Revenue Cases disposal system
● Online Sugar Sale system
Web Services
The Government of U.P. has come out with its website policy through a G.O. (Government Order) making http://upgov. nic.in as the official web site of Uttar Pradesh on NIC domain, for all of its 114 departments and 70 districts. As on date, a total of 108 web sites pertaining to 30 state Government departments, 64 districts and 14 other departments/ corporations have been put on the web. For the purpose, total IT support, including development, hosting and maintenance of respective websites has been provided by NIC UP State Unit. A mega portal http://uponline.nic.in/ has also been developed for complete integration of all web sites in Uttar Pradesh with a search engine facility. Recently, teachers’ recruitment results on net through http://upgov.nic.in/ gave statewide recognition to NIC among the general public.
NIC District Units
The district units of NIC in U.P.have been providing major I.T. support to the district administration & other district level offices of both the central & state government departments. Providing reliable IT consultancy & IT solutions by NIC District Units even in remote areas has proved to be a major help to the Government machinery. The experience gained by the U.P. Government’s officers practically using the skills available with NIC in their field operations, makes them exude confidence in NIC’s capabilities during their state & directorate level postings.
Training
Regular training and re-training programmes for the personnel of the both the State and Central Government departments, as well as Technology update programmes for NIC officers is a routine exercise at all NIC centers in U. P., which has been appreciated by various beneficiary departments & participants. NIC UP State Unit’s well-equipped training labs ensures 1:1 man-to-machine ratio, during all of its training programmes.
National level Project
NIC is also providing I.T. support and implementing National level computerization projects in the following offices in the state of Uttar Pradesh:
● Passport Offices at Bareilly & Lucknow
● Registrar of Companies at Kanpur
● Central Excise Offices at Meerut, Kanpur, Lucknow & Allahabad
● High Court at Allahabad & its Lucknow bench
● Postal Life Insurance (PLI) for the Department of Posts
● Press Information Bureau
Awards of Excellence
The efforts of NIC UP State Unit and its officers have been appreciated right since the inception of NIC in U.P. The President of India’s medals were awarded to six NIC officers in 1992 for their contributions towards successful computerization of "Census of India, 1991". Recently, the Government of U.P. awarded three NIC officers, for their contribution towards Treasury computerization process. Recognition of contributions of NIC UP officers by the current National Executive of Computer Society of India also demonstrates NIC’s dedication to further the cause of I.T. in U.P.