Informatics

Volume 18 No.3 | January 2010

Patron
Editorial
Dr. B.K. Gairola

Editor-in-Chief
Neeta Verma

Regional Editors
A new genre of web technologies & applications have gained a lot of
popularity in last few years. Collectively known as Web 2.0, these
technologies have made profound impact on the social life of
people. They enable users to not only have easy access to relevant information
Vivek Verma but also empower them to generate content, participate in opinion making to
R. Gayatri even building of sophisticated information products. Enterprises are using
Anshu Rohatgi these technologies to provide more personalized services to their customers.
Prashant Belwariar Governments world over are exploring the ways in which they can leverage
Advisory Panel upon these technologies. Our lead story explores the potential of web 2.0
Dr. Y.K. Sharma technologies in the government and also highlights various initiatives in this
T.A. Khan direction.
Dr. Gautam Bose
Installation of Closed Circuit Televisions in Tihar, ICT in Public Distribution
Editorial Board System in Kerala, Digital Archiving and Commercial Tax Computerisation are
Dr. Mahesh Chandra
Dr. Shefali Dash the highlights of our Products & Services Section this time.
B.V. Sarma
S.B. Singh
In the Guest Column, we bring an exclusive interview with Sh. G.S.Gill, DGP,
Vinay Thakur Himachal Pradesh on ICT initiatives for better service in the state.

WWW Version ICT initiatives in the State of Kerala, the land of back waters & in the State of
Lokesh Joshi Haryana is the highlight of our state section. Major ICT initiatives in Jalgaon
District of Maharashtra, Dungarpur District of Rajasthan, and Tirap District
Print Coordination
A. K. Aggarwal
of Arunachal Pradesh have been discussed in 'District Informatics'.
Anita Arora
All our regular sections viz., Technology Update, International e-Gov Update,
Circulation & Despatch Cyber Governance, In the News, and Book Review etc., are there to serve your
Anita Bhardwaj need to know what's happening in the e-Gov sphere around us.
Jasvinder Kaur
Wishing you a Wonderful Year Ahead…
Editorial Assistance
Aditya Gogoi

Informatics Neeta Verma

is Published by National Editor-in-Chief
Informatics Centre, Department editor.info@nic.in
of Information Technology,
Ministry of Communications &
I n f o r m a t i o n Te c h n o l o g y,
Government of India
A-Block, CGO Complex,
Lodhi Road,
New Delhi-110 003
Wish You All...
A Happy New Year
© 2007, All Rights Reserved.

Layout & Printed at

Viba Press Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi
on behalf of NIC
Contents
in this issue…
Lead Story
Leveraging Web 2.0 Technology in Government …………………………………Page 4

e-Gov Products & Services

- Closed Circuit Surveillance System at Delhi Tihar Prisons ……………Page 8
- ICT, an enabler for efficient Public Distribution System in Kerala ……Page 10
- Digital Archiving and Management at NIC ……………………………Page 12
- Commercial Tax Computerisation in Uttar Pradesh ……………….…Page 14

From the States/UT

Kerala: ICT in the land of Backwaters………………………………...………Page 16
Haryana:Spearheading the e-Governance Initiatives …………...…………Page 21

Guest Column
Interview with Sh. G.S.Gill, IPS & DGP
Police Department, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh …….......………………..…….Page 25

Technology Update
- Service Oriented Architecture: Security Perspective ……….…………Page 27
- Cloud Computing: An Innovative Approach in IT…………….….……Page 30

District Informatics
A profile and overview of e-Governance initiatives in the Districts of
- Jalgaon (Maharashtra) ……………………………………………Page 32
- Dungarpur (Rajasthan) ……………………………………………Page 34
- Tirap (Arunachal Pradesh) ……………………………………….…Page 36

News
- International e-Gov Updates ……………………………….Page 38
- Cyber Governance ………………………………………….Page 40
- National Portal Update (from India.gov.in) ………..……….Page 41
- In the News (happenings from across the country) ……….Page 42

Views
- Perspective: Thinking beyond Project Management ………………..…….…………Page 46
- Book Review: Cryptography and Network Security …………………….……………Page 48
3
Lead Story
Leveraging Web 2.0 Technology in Government
A new genre of Web-based
applications has gained a lot of
popularity in last few years.
Applications such as Facebook,
YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, once a
tool of tech savvy youngsters have
gained a lot of popularity and
acceptance across much wider
spread of demography. Social-
networking Web site, such as
Facebook alone has more than
350 million active users
worldwide. These applications
have evolved around the concept
of the user as a producer of
content such as Blogs, Wikipedia,
Flickr, YouTube etc. ; of goods
such as eBay, ; of contacts such
as Face book, MySpace, Linkedin
of relevance and reputation such
as eBay, TripAdvisor etc.
Neeta Verma
Senior Technical Director, NIC
neeta@nic.in
4
Collectively known as Web 2.0, these
applications though launched with
very little investment had
phenomenal success in terms of take
up. They have made the profound
impact on the social life of people, as
well as on industries such as
advertising and media. What
distinguishes Web 2.0 technologies
from previous technologies is the
high degree of participation they
require to be effective. Unlike earlier
applications, where most users
either simply process
information in the form of
reports or use the technology to
execute transactions. Web 2.0
technologies are interactive and
require users to generate new
information and content or to
edit the work of others. Further,
Induction of new technology in
an organisation involves a lot of
resources in times of time,
money and skilled manpower.
But the Web 2.0 technologies
and tools are different. While
they are inherently disruptive
and often challenge the culture
of the organization they are not
technically complex to
implement. In most of the cases they
can be implemented using the
existing infrastructure and do not
necessarily require complex
migration and integration exercise.
Web 2.0 Applications in
Government
Fundamental principle of Web 2.0
technologies finds resonance with
the objectives of good governance.
Public participation &
Empowerment of Citizens are the key
tenets of governance and Web 2.0
technologies are striving in the same
direction by enabling users to not
only have easy access the relevant
information but also empower them
Informatics, January 2010
to generate content, participate in
opinion building to even building of
sophisticated information products.
Wikipedia, Flickr, You tube are live
examples of the same. Realising the
potential of Web 2.0 technologies,
governments world over are
exploring the ways in which they can
leverage upon these technologies.
Lot of initiatives are also being taken.
Some of those are highlighted in
following section.
White House on You Tube
Ideas for CM
(http://www.ideasforcm.in) : An
endeavour by Madhya Pradesh state
government to develop a citizen
participatory model for governance
so as to enable the top levels of
government, to reach out to those
whom they may not have chance to
meet in person in spite of their best
intentions to do so. Citizens can
participate through this web based
platform in the whole process of
development of government policies
from formulation to implementation.
The facility for tracking the status of
contribution provided to the citizen
through the portal gives him a sense
of involvement, belongingness and
responsiveness.
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in Lead Story

Web 2.0 Spectrum of Technologies & Applications

RSS & Atom: Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a format for delivering regularly changing
web content. RSS feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They also benefit readers
who want to access regular updates from certain set of websites/blogs without visiting them regularly. The Atom
Syndication Format is an XML language used for Web feeds which allows software programs to check for updates
published on a website. Atom format was developed as an
alternative to RSS.
AJAX: AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a
group of interrelated web development techniques used on
the client-side to create interactive web applications. With
Ajax, web applications can retrieve data from the server
asynchronously in the background without interfering with
the display and behavior of the existing page.
SOA & REST: A web service is traditionally defined by the
W3C as "a software system designed to support
interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a
network. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) &
A tag cloud for Web 2.0 Representational State Transfer (REST) are styles of
deploying web services.
Mashup: A Mashup is a lightweight tactical integration of multisource applications or content into a single offering. An
example of a mashup is the use of cartographic data to add location information of a government office or service centre.
Blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of thoughts, observations or opinions
posted as well as other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological
order. Organisations also create corporate blogs to communicate, share information and foster discussions around their
domain of activities. There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way
that content is delivered or written.
Wiki is a simple, text-based collaborative system for creating and maintaining hyperlinked collections of Web pages in
many different languages. Wikipedia's 14 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the
world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site.
Podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through
web syndication. Special client software known as Podcatchers such as iTunes can automatically identify and download
new files in the series when they are released.
Content or Service Rating refers to the ability to provide unfiltered feedback on a specific piece of information or
online service, through a form-based interaction that requires a user to rate the content or service on a simple scale.
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search and manage bookmarks of Web pages with
the help of metadata. Users label or "tag" these bookmarks using relevant descriptions and share these bookmarks and
tags with others.
Tag Cloud (or weighted list in visual design) is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, used typically to describe the
content of web sites. The tags are usually hyperlinks leading to a collection of items that are associated with a tag.
User Tagging is a way to obtain user-created metadata via Web sites. Folksonomy also known as social tagging is a
system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate
and categorize content.

5
 Lead Story
Peer to Patent (http://www.peertopatent.org): The Peer-
to-Patent project also known as the Community Patent
Review is an initiative towards reforming the patent
system by gathering public input in a structured,
productive manner. Peer-to-Patent seeks to improve the
quality of patents issued by connecting the United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to an open
network of experts online. Peer-to-Patent is the first
social-software project directly linked to decision-
making by the federal government.
Political participation: Politicians world over are using
Web 2.0 applications for a more direct contact with the
electorate. White house has a presence on a large number
of social networking sites. It also has a blog associated
with it. President Obama had also used Web 2.0
technologies extensively to connect with the citizens of
America during presidential elections. In many
European countries, politicians have blogs and they also
White House on Facebook
6
Informatics, January 2010
participate in social networking websites. In some
countries they are also using micro blogging format such
as twitter extensively to connect with the electorate.
Intellipedia: Intellipedia is a project of the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence, U.S. It is a wiki-based
platform which enables the direct collaborative drafting
of intelligence reports by analysts from 16 different
intelligence agencies in United States. This Wikipedia-
like software allows analysts from different agencies to
produce joint reports, which are more robust as they also
include dissenting voices. Intellipedia is currently
supposed to have 30,000 articles and reports produced
collaboratively.
Potential Benefits of Web 2.0 technologies:
 Citizen centric government
 Enhanced quality of content
 Improvement in service delivery
 Enhanced engagement with citizens
 Increased usage of online services
 Better Inter & Intra department collaboration
 Easier integration of government services
 Leverage unused/unexploited data for Mashups.
Sanjog Helpline (http://www.sanjoghelpline.in): An
initiative of State Government of Orissa provides a
Homepage of Sanjog Helpline
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
forum to the government to be in touch with the scheme
beneficiaries and allows the citizen to register and
address their grievances, via 5 different modes namely
Internet, Toll free number, e-Mail, Fax and Letter. The
citizens can also assess the status of their grievances
through a ticket number provided to them. The system
has an inbuilt intimation and escalation process, which
allows registered grievances to reach the right people in
the right place at the right time.
Patient Opinion (http://www.nhs.uk): Patient Opinion is
a service that was launched by a General Practitioner in
order to improve the National Health Service in UK.
Patients can comment, review and rate the services they
have received at healthcare facilities and can see the
reviews of other patients. It is similar to the service
provided by "Tripadvisor" for reviewing hotels.
Feedback is both quantitative and qualitative. Comments
are moderated and edited by the moderators to ensure
privacy and respect.
Conclusion
Public Communication through social media sites such
as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Engagement of
Politicians with their electorate, Public consultation in
formulation of policies, are some of the commonly
exploited domains. Web2.0 technologies however, have
far more potential.
Web 2.0 based initiative of NASA
Governments are constantly challenged for better
delivery of citizen services. Web 2.0 technologies can be
Lead Story
used in getting direct feedback from citizens on various
government programmes and services. Citizens can rate
the services delivered by government, directly engage
with government and influence the service delivery at
times to make it more effective & citizen centric.
Citizens could also collaborate in co production of
content and services.
Rating of Services by Citizens
Governments can also engage citizens in getting direct
feedback on implementation of various government
schemes on the ground. Deployed systemically these
input from citizens as well as other stakeholders could be
very effectively utilized in improving the effectiveness
of the schemes, help them meet their intended objectives
of social development.
Web 2.0 technologies can also support better analysis
and identification of problems which in turn can improve
processes and service to citizens. For example, Mashups
can provide greater location information about where the
need for a particular social service programme is more
based on various parameters. Information from
programme databases can be displayed on a map giving
policymakers and community members a much more
complete picture of their community and its needs.
Government should therefore identify the domains
where potential of Web 2.0 Technologies could be
harnessed the best and also work out a strategy to create
awareness, enabling empowerment of government
departments to use these technologies.
7
E-Gov. Products & Services
Closed Circuit Surveillance System at Delhi Tihar Prisons
In a major initiative to strengthen
its security and surveillance on
the activities of Prisoners in
Delhi's Tihar Prisons, the prison
administration has geared up
with the installation of Close
Circuit Televisions (CCTV),
covering major portions of the
prison. With state of art CCTV
control room being set up in the
prison Head Quarters, the
movement of the prisoners as
well as its employees will now be
under round-the-clock
surveillance of CCTV cameras.
Provisions are also made to keep
a record of the captured activities
for future use in case of any
complaints by the inmates or
Human Rights violations.
Rajiv Prakash Saxena
Deputy Director General, NIC
rajiv.saxena@nic.in
8
CCTV or Closed Circuit Television
refers to a visible or covert video
system intended for only a limited
number of viewers. In CCTV, the
picture is viewed or recorded, but
not broadcast. It was initially
developed as a means of security for
banks and casinos; however, today it
has been developed
to the point where it
is simple and
inexpensive
enough to be used
w i t h H o m e
Security Systems
and for everyday
surveillance.
Components of
CCTV
* Fixed camera.
* Movable camera also called as
Pan, Tilt and Zoom (PTZ)
Camera.
* Network for bringing the feed at
the control room.
* Central server for managing
cameras.
* Distributed servers for
recording in each jail.
* N e t w o r k Vi d e o R e c o r d e r
(NVR) in each jail for
recording.
* Monitor or a LCD Panel for
display either at jail level or at
central level.
Internet Protocol (IP) enabled
Informatics, January 2010
cameras are CCTV cameras that use
IP to transmit image data and control
signals over a fast ethernet link to a
central control room. IP enabled
cameras are primarily used for
surveillance in the same manner as
analog closed-circuit television.
An IP enabled CCTV setup has
analog cameras that are normally
deployed together with a digital
video recorder (DVR) or a network
video recorder (NVR) to form a
video surveillance system in the
Tihar complex.
A DVR system is not really fully IP-
based, but is a step toward the more
a d v a n c e d I P t e c h n o l o g y. I n
actuality, a DVR system uses the
same camera and structure for
cabling as the older CCTV analog
system, but the old VCRs have been
replaced with DVR for storage and
recording of the data. The data is
converted into digital images such
that it can be stored on hard discs,
but the quality of the images
captured remains analog since this
is how the image had originated.
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
Te c h n o l o g i c a l a d v a n c e m e n t i n t h e f i e l d o f
communication and digital technology extend vision
beyond territorial boundaries. The high-security Tihar
Central Jail, one of South Asia's biggest prison, has
installed IP enabled closed circuit television (CCTV)
cameras for viewing and recording from all sensitive
points to tighten security, for close surveillance of its
over 14,000 inmates and to monitor on-going activities
in various independent jails.
The CCTV surveillance system, in addition to their
additional requirement of LAN, is using the existing
Optical Fibre Cable Local Area Network of Delhi Tihar
Prison. The existing OFC LAN has one Layer 3 Switch
and 16 Layer 2 Switches connected with each other
with Optical Fibre Cable of more than 5800 metres
within the Tihar Complex. The LAN already installed
in the prison premises is used for connectivity between
the sub control rooms in Jails and main control room at
Prison Headquarter. The total numbers of control
rooms in the Jail are nine. A CCTV monitor is virtually
the same as a television receiver except that it does not
have the tuning circuits. LCD TV with high resolution
is being used as monitors in the control room.
Decentralized panels have been installed to review the
security in each jail and then the same is being
monitored in the control room. A panel has also been
created in The Office of the DG Tihar.
Nearly 258 CCTV cameras (Fixed (CS Vandal Proof
Mount Outdoor Camera LTC 0455 & CS Mount Indoor
Camera LTC 3374/50) & PTZ (Outdoor Dome PTZ
Camera Bosch VG 4-313-ECSIIW) have been installed
and have atleast 10 CCTV cameras at various sensitive
points of each Prison and within the complex. One
Main Control Room at Prisons Headquarter and Sub-
Control Room in each Prison are created. The recording
of video is at both locations (Main Control Room &
Sub-Control Room). Each sub-control room is
equipped with Video Converter / Digitiser / Encoder
(Bosch VIPX Series) colour LCD high resolution
monitors and Intel Xeon based Server. In addition,
main control room is having 42” High resolution LCD
E-Gov. Products & Services
(Philips) Panels, Digital Key boards for controlling
PTZ cameras (Bosch KBD Digital + KBD 220PS)
Network Video Recorder (Dell PE1950 along with
license software of Bosch for NVR) Server along with
software, RAID HDD (Dell MD 1000) Storage (5 Terra
Bytes).
The CCTV Surveillance System helps in establishing
chronological sequence and duration of any incident
within the complex. The surveillance system shall be
able to provide immediate reports on the potential
threats. This surveillance system can further be
upgraded with more advanced application software to
carry out analytical functions like motion detection
alarm, snap shots of the scene, intrusion detection. It
shall also help in routine reporting on suspicious
persons, vehicles and objects.
Tihar is the 1st jail in the country to have installed such
type of the system in the country. Many VIPs, which
include Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Lt.
Governor of Delhi, Union Home Minister of the Union
Government, Chief Minister of Delhi, Director
General of Police of different states, Home Minister of
Maldives, Director General of Jail from Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, Nepal and representative of UNODC have
visited and appreciated the efforts of Tihar Jail in
implementing the above monitoring system for
security enhancement.
Human Rights violations have reduced considerably
due to such monitoring both in male and female wards.
Both the inmates and wardens are scared to start any
arguments since each action is being getting recorded.
Cases of smoking in the jail premises have reduced
considerably due to such initiatives.
NIC has been associated with this project.
For further information, contact:
Rajiv Prakash Saxena
Deputy Director General
National Informatics Centre, Delhi
Tel: (011)- 2 436 42 99/ 2 430 56 91/ 2 430 56 90
rajiv.saxena@nic.in
9
E-Gov. Products & Services
ICT, an enabler for efficient Public Distribution System in
Kerala
Public Distribution of Food grains
has always been an integral part of
any State's overall food policy. It
has been evolved to reach the urban
as well as the rural population in
order to protect the consumers from
the fluctuating and escalating price
syndrome. TETRAPDS (Targeted
Efficient Transparent Rationing
and Allocation Public Distribution
System) developed by NIC, Kerala
is a comprehensive package for
automating the activities of the
Taluk Supply Offices, District
Supply Offices and
Commissionerate of Civil Supplies
to improve the efficiency of the
public Distribution system and
enable the department to provide
better services and reduce
corruption.
Ajith Brahmanandan
Technical Director, Kerala
ajithb@nic.in
Shatti Raj
Senior Systems Analyst, Kerala
shattiraj@nic.in
10
The Computerisation activities in
Civil Supplies department began in
2002 with the digitization of sixty four
lakhs ration cards. There are 69 Taluk
Supply Offices (TSO) /City Rationing
Offices (CRO) in the State. The client-
server application was used for
issuing ration cards in bilingual
format in each TSO/CRO. For
supporting the local languages, ISM
software was incorporated in the
application.
The renewal process of these ration
cards, were initiated in the year 2007-
2008. For the renewal purpose,
datasheets generated from the
databases were distributed to the
citizens for making necessary changes
and the same were updated in the
databases. The data with local
language font in the databases was
converted into Unicode. Sixty nine
lakh renewed laminated ration cards
with photo of the owner of the ration
card and bar code were printed and
issued in 2009.
Central Ration Card Database
The Civil Supplies Department,
Government of Kerala has created one
of the largest Central databases in the
State with data of around 70 lakh
ration cardholders and around 3 Crore
family members. The database covers
almost 90% of the population in the
state of Kerala. The database is
available in the State Data Center with
facility to access the same from
anywhere in the state through Internet
or KSWAN. All the TSOs/CROs and
the Commissionerate of Civil
Supplies are networked through
Informatics, January 2010
KSWAN and the transactions are
monitored through the Central Server.
The Central data is synchronized
online with the distributed rationcard
databases of TSOs/CROs. In short,
the latest status of the ration
cardholders and their family members
will be available in the Central
database, which could be accessed
online from anywhere.
Government is able to deliver better
web enabled citizen centric services,
G2G and G2B services from the
Central database by effective usage of
Information technology. The
consolidation also helps generate MIS
reports, share the data with other
government departments, national
authorities and securely allow citizen
access to their respective data.
Ration Card Verification Service
This database can be made use for
providing better and efficient services
to the citizens and various
departments. The ration card holders
or their family members provide the
copy of the ration card to various
agencies, government and private, for
availing various services like, new
electricity connection, water
connection, building permit, LPG
connection, telephone/mobile
connection etc. It is proposed to
provide the verification service of the
ration cards furnished by the applicant
electronically. This will considerably
reduce the verification time by the
agencies concerned and delay in
providing the services and reduce
corruption
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
The three main modules of TETRAPDS application are
 Ration Card Management System (RCMS 4.0):
RCMS 4.0 is a client-server application which gives a
work flow based solution for all citizen services which
include issue of new ration cards, issue of surrender
and reduction certificates, addition and deletion of
members in the card, splitting of ration cards etc. The
application is implemented in all 69 TSOs/CROs in
the state.
Work flow of RCMS
 Allocation 2.0: Allocation of commodities is a web
based workflow-based solution for allocating food
grains from the TSOs based on the theoretical
requirement of the dealers. Inspection by authorities
and Monitoring of Permits and licenses are also part of
Allocation. It is the complete computerization of
activities from the lifting of food grains from FCI
depots to the point of issue of commodities to ration
card holders. The entire activities involved are tracked
through a centralized system. Facilities for online
calculation of allotment under different schemes,
online generation of Authority for FCI, Authority list
for wholesale dealers and generation of proceedings
for TSOs are incorporated in the application.
The data entered at different locations are analysed
and consolidated to provide an e-Governance solution
for effective decision making and monitoring the
progress of monthly allotment, lifting, off take and
E-Gov. Products & Services
distribution of essential commodities under various
schemes.
 Website of Civil Supplies Department: A web site
www.civilsupplieskerala.gov.in is hosted to provide
information to the people about the department,
Public Distribution system, stock details of dealers
and links to websites of its related offices. It is a portal-
cum-web enabled monitoring system for the
following applications:
* Inspection Monitoring Software: Application
for monitoring the daily inspections carried out by
the Rationing Inspectors on ARDs. Implemented
for all TSOs and DSOs. State level reports are
generated depicting the Inspections conducted,
irregularities detected and action taken on the
erring dealers.
* Web based Offtake software: For entering the
TSO level weekly stock details of wholesale and
Retail dealers. Verification of records done by
officials of District Supply Offices. State level
reports displaying the lifting details from FCI and
stock details of Fair price shops and wholesale
dealers are generated.
* Web based DCB software: For entering the TSO
level Demand Collection and Balance details.
State level, district level reports generated for
displaying the DCB details.
* Allotment of Food grains: For entering the
district wise allotment of food grains, sugar and
kerosene.
The central database of Ration Cards and effective usage
of Information Technology will result in delivering
better citizen centric services by the Government. All the
services related to Ration Card Transactions in the Civil
Supplies department will be provided through electronic
means. The e-Services will dramatically change the way
services are provided today. The public will be able to
access these services round-the-clock, all seven days of
the week.
For further information, contact:
State Informatics Officer, Kerala
sio-ker@nic.in
Edited by: R. Gayatri
11
E-Gov. Products & Services
Digital Archiving and Management at NIC
Digital objects are being created
by governments, private
corporations, authors, publishers,
librarians, museum curators etc.,
in the form of text documents,
photographs, images, audio and
video footage, maps and more.
Specifically, the massive volumes
of paper generated by
government offices can be pulled
out of files and digitized.
Metadata can be utilized to easily
categorize digitized records of
government offices. This would
facilitate access to information
buried deep in files, making it
available at the click of a mouse.
Nandita Chaudhri
Senior Technical Director, NIC HQ
nandita@nic.in
Surinder Kumar
Technical Director, NIC HQ
suri@nic.in
12
The rapid surge in the generation and
dissemination of digital information,
in various formats, is a unique
phenomenon of our times. Huge
volumes of information, in digital
form, can be stored more compactly
and accessed with greater speed and
ease than on paper. In a networked
environment, these attributes of
digital access take on mindboggling
dimensions. On the other hand, digital
information is fragile unlike
information on traditional media such
as paper. It is vulnerable to corruption,
to alteration without detection and to
obsolescence of storage and access
technologies. As more and more
information is either 'born digital' or
digitized from its analog form, a
special focus is required to archive
and manage it efficiently and
effectively so that it is available over
longer periods of time and is not lost to
posterity. Accordingly, the science of
Digital Archiving and Management
has evolved rapidly over the last
decade.
About DSpace:
Based on careful evaluation of the
different technology options, the
Digital Archiving and Management
(DAM) group of NIC has identified
Open Source technology, to provide
solutions to other government
organizations/agencies. DSpace is
being used currently, which is a
groundbreaking Open Source digital
repository software tool which
captures, stores, indexes, preserves
and redistributes content in digital
formats.
Informatics, January 2010
 System Architecture: The main
code of DSpace is implemented in
Java, and runs on any UNIX-like
system. It makes use of several
third-party open source systems:
PostgreSQL, an open source
relational database system;
Jakarta Tomcat Java Servlet
container and Apache HTTPD
server, for optional SSL and
X.509 certificate support.
 Search and Browse: DSpace
uses the Lucene Search engine. It
provides fielded searching, stop
words, stemming. Its API allows
indexing new content,
regenerating the index, and
performing searches on the entire
c o r p u s , a c o m m u n i t y, o r
collection. Another important
mechanism for document
discovery in DSpace is the
'browse.'
 Content Organization: Content,
at the highest level, in DSpace, is
organized into communities.
These correspond to
organizational bodies in an
institution, such as departments,
labs, research centers or schools.
A community is organized into
collections of logically-related
material. For example, a technical
report series might be a
collection. An item is an “archival
atom”; that is, a grouping of
content and metadata that it
makes sense to archive as a single
unit. Each item has one Dublin
Core metadata record. There is a
facility for Bitstream storage,
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
Persistent Naming and Personal Workspace. Also
available is a feature of an editorial review process
which provides three tiers workflow in submission of
an article.
 Look and Feel: The latest version of DSpace has an
XML based UI, as well, known as Manakin. Manakin
is the second version of DSpace XML UI that uses
SAX & the Cocoon framework to enable
communities and collections to establish a unique
look and feel that is distinct from the default
installation of DSpace.
Major projects:
Some major projects undertaken by the group are -
 Digitization of Rajya Sabha Debates: The nation's
most august body, the Rajya Sabha, or the Upper
House of the Parliament of India, during its sessions,
witnesses Questions and Answers and Debates in
English, Hindi and Urdu. A record of these is presently
available in print format. Towards the goal of building
a digital repository of these proceedings, the work for
digitization has been outsourced and NIC has
undertaken the task of archiving the digitized
information using DSpace. This repository would
provide invaluable reference material for legislators
and the general public alike.
Website of Rajya Sabha Official Debates
 Knowledge Repository of Inter-State Council
Secretariat: ISCS@Digital Repository has been
developed using DSpace, and can be accessed over
the Local Area Network of the Council. The
repository contains the Report on Centre State
E-Gov. Products & Services
Relations of the Sarkaria Commission. The Action
Taken Report of one chapter of this report has
presently been included in the repository as a pilot
project.
Indian Virtual Herbarium (IVH) & Digital Herbaria (DH):
The conservation of biological diversity is a critical
necessity for the maintenance of the Biosphere in a state
supportive of human survival on Earth. The Botanical
Survey of India (BSI) under the Ministry of Environment
and Forests (MoEF), acts as the custodian of the country's
floral wealth comprising about 45,000 plants spread over
the entire country. NIC has developed a solution for
implementing a Digital Herbarium (DH) comprising an
Imaging Studio, as well as complete repository of high
resolution images of this flora, with search facility, at each
of BSI's 14 Herbaria, for in-house access. Also, an Indian
Virtual Herbarium (IVH) is being developed at a central
location with high speed Internet connectivity.
Webpage of Digital Herbarium at BSI
The DAM group has also provided a solution for the
Administration branch of UPSC, for digital archiving of
its records. Currently under consideration, are digitization
projects for documents belonging to the Ministry of
Environment and confidential records of the Anti-Crime
Bureau of Hyderabad.
For further information, contact:
National Informatics Centre
Digital Archiving and Management Group
damgrp-list@lsmgr.nic.in
Tel: 91-011-24305520/ 24364265
13
E-Gov. Products & Services Informatics, January 2010

Commercial Tax Computerisation in Uttar Pradesh

The introduction of ICT in
Commercial Tax Department of
Uttar Pradesh has added a
new dimension to the
department, in dissemination of
information related to
commercial taxes, and
improved the service delivery
to the citizens. The
computerization has helped the
department to effectively
monitor the intrastate trade
and facilitated the traders,
dealers in e-return filing,
online submission of transit
declaration forms, Net banking
and myriad of other options
making interactions simpler
and easier.
NIC-UP in association with
Department of Commercial Tax
initiated the computerization of VAT
(Value Added Tax) system in Uttar
Pradesh. The initial version of the
application was inaugurated by the
Chief Secretary, Government of U.P.
on 24th November 2007.
Subsequently, the entire application,
which is primarily divided into two
parts Web Portal & VYAS (VanijYa
kar Automation System), was
simultaneously rolled out in all the 94
commercial tax assessment offices in
a record time of four months.
VanijYakar Automation System
(VYAS), is a browser based solution
designed to automate almost all the
activities related to VAT system. It is a
unique user-id/password based single
window system to cater the needs of
the Traders. The entire activity wise
work flow is being captured through
Front office and Back office modules
of the system. A number of modules
such as Receipt, Registry, Return,
Challan, Help-desk, Assessment,
Administration etc. have been
developed and implemented
successfully. This Software contains
the database of more than five lakh
dealers/traders and provisions have
been made to capture the photographs
and thumb impressions of all the
dealers for future purposes. The
application has been developed on
.NET framework with SQL Server
2005 as the database.

VanijYakar Automation System

Ashesh Kr. Agarwal
Technical Director, Uttar Pradesh
ashesh.agarwal@nic.in
Anshu Rohatgi
Technical Director, Uttar Pradesh
anshu.rohatgi@nic.in
 Implemented from 1st Jan 2008, the day VAT was adopted in the state
 Web based software in client server architecture.
 Single window receipt and registration process
 All 94 locations have a vyapari suvidha kendra acting as one stop shop for
all type of receipts
 Tatkal registration facility for the dealers
 Capturing the bio-metric data of the registered dealers
 Centralized database of over 5 lakh dealers
 Net payment collection over 4200 crores
 Successfully capturing invoice level data through online return process
 MIS system for monitoring and proper management of the applications

14
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
NetWork Architecture: U.P. Commercial Tax
department was the first department in the state to
integrate their local network with UP State Wide Area
Network and use this backbone infrastructure. All the 94
locations have been connected to the Central Server
through SWAN while the horizontal connectivity has
been provided using the RF technology. The Web Server,
Data Server and Staging Server are located at NIC Data
Centre while Data Mirroring has been done to prevent
any data loss. Services of NICSI, Lakshmi Nagar Data
Centre were also hired for e-return filing & form 38
download facilities.
Netbanking: The concept of NET Banking was
introduced to provide speedy and efficient financial
transactions and increase the overall productivity of the
department. Backend arrangements were done with State
Bank of India and U.P. Treasuries to provide a payment
gateway and the dealers/traders were provided the
facility of online payment of tax dues using Internet.
About 8,000 traders have already used this facility and
around 6,000 crores of tax has been collected through
NET payment in the current financial year. The dealers
have been very appreciative about the new system and
the average tax collection through NET banking is about
300 crores per month and increasing. Talks with other
banks such as Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of
India, Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank are in pipeline to
start these services using their NET payment facility.
e-Return filing: e-Return filing was enabled to handle
the governments decision of making return filing
compulsory for all traders having a turn over of more than
one crore. An offline module has been provided to all the
traders to validate, zip and encrypt the main return details
and digital signatures have been used to authenticate the
submission of returns. More than one lakh traders have
already filed e-Return amounting to five thousand
crores. The hardware (availability of network, server
resources, and storage capacity) has been scaled up and
the application has been fine tuned to handle more than
200-300 concurrent users accessing the application
during the peak hours. The 23K records of XML file can
be slipped into SQL table in just 20 seconds.
Input Tax Credit Reports: Input Tax Credit is very vital
to the concept of Value Added Tax system. The dealer can
claim Input Tax Credit on his purchases on the basis of
E-Gov. Products & Services
tax invoices issued by selling dealer. Sector office-wise
reports to validate dealer's ITC claim are being generated
by the system. These key reports have proven to be one of
the major benefits of computerization for the
department. The application has also helped in
verification of the ITC claims and to manage revenue
realization efficiently and timely.
Transit Declaration Form (TDF)/'Bahati' Online :
The Commercial Tax Department abolished the check
posts from 1st August 2009. Now, the transporters are
required to declare route & related information and
generate TDF on-line for transit authorization of goods
movement through the state or from outside the state. On
an average, 6,000 transporters are generating and
downloading this form from the website
(http://comtaxup.nic.in) every day.
Online Forms 38 (declaration for import)
download - Registered dealers can download and submit
utilization of forms 38 electronically. They have to
register once online to avail this facility and after their
details are verified computer generated passwords are
issued to them for further transactions.
Project Team: Mr. Ajai Gopal Bhartariya, PSA, Ms.
Amita Shrivastava, PSA, Mr. Sanjay Chatterjee, PSA,
Ms. Ragni Kumari, Programmer.
For further information, contact:
S. B. Singh
Deputy Director General & State Informatics Officer
NIC Uttar Pradesh State Unit
6th Floor, Yojana Bhawan, Lucknow
sio-up@nic.in
15
From the States Informatics, January 2010

Kerala : ICT in the land of Backwaters

Kerala "Gods Own Country",
is the first Indian State to
achieve total literacy. NIC
Kerala was established in 1987
as part of nationwide computer
and communication network,
NICNET. NIC district centers
are located in the 14 district
head quarters attached to the
collectorate.
Dr. K. Santhana Raman
State Informatics Officer, Kerala
sio-ker@nic.in
NIC one of the total solution providers  Studio based Video Conferencing
of Government of Kerala, is actively facility at State Centre and EVCS
involved in most of the IT enabled (Executive Video Conferencing
applications and has changed the System) facility at NIC District
mindset of the working community in Centres, Chief Secretary's office
the Government to make use of the and CPMG office are being
extensively used.
latest state of the art technology in
their day to day activities to provide  Data Centre with 3.5 TB & 21
better services to the citizens of servers provide web hosting,
Kerala. antivirus support, radius
authentication, single sign on,
Network & Data Centre update services etc.
Network Operations Centre (NOC) & Webhosting Services
Data Centre, with 24 x 7 operation
support, has been established at NIC NIC Kerala is providing web site
Kerala State Centre for strengthening development and hosting services to
the network and services to user various Government Departments /
District administration on both Linux
departments. The National Network
and WINDOWS platforms. 35
Backbone has been enhanced to 2.5
websites on Linux and 20 on windows
GBPS as a part of the National
platform are hosted at NIC Kerala
Knowledge Network. 2 MBPS leased Data Center. Services also include
line network has been established in Registration of domains, uploading
Kerala which includes 14 NIC facility on http://tenders.gov.in
District Centres, High Court, NITC, portal, state specific contents of
Lakshadweep, 116 Post Offices, 4 National portal of India, Publication
Passport Offices, BOI, DGFT, PAO, of 23 results of various boards and
PQS, VSSC (node of NKN) etc. universities.
Excerpt of the letter from Sh. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Hon'ble
Minister for Home,Vigilance and Tourism, Government of Kerala
I am proud to announce that the Kerala Prison Department has
launched its official website. The website provides a modern and
efficient interface between the Department and General Public.
The website enables the people to learn more about the mission,
vision, resources and various activities carried out by the Prison Department.
I wish all success to this venture.

Content Management Framework departments and hence there is a

Asha Varma
Technical Director, Kerala
ashavarma.kc@nic.in
(CMF)
NIC Kerala has been developing
websites using open source CMF
since 2005. All the sites are updated
regularly by the respective user
feeling of ownership by them.
Government of Kerala has migrated
most of the department websites to
CMF in 2009. It is found to be a very
cost effective solution.

16
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in From the States

Excerpt of the letter from Hon'ble Education Minister of Govt of Kerala, Sh. M. A. Baby
The Education Department, Government of Kerala, with the technical support of NIC Kerala State
Centre, could successfully implement various IT enabled projects like Result processing of SSLC &
Higher Secondary, hsCAPnic, CAPnic for professional courses, Lateral Entry for B.Tech. Courses,
Online application form for various entrance examinations, scholarship schemes, teachers' transfer
etc.
I wish all the success to NIC Kerala Team.

ICT Initiatives
hsCAPnic: It is a 'Single Window System' which
facilitates submitting single application for admission to
any school. By using the system, plus-one admission
service was given to about 4.5 lakh applicants in the
academic year 2009-2010. There were about 45 lakh
options for about 2.25 lakh seats in the 1,200 Higher
Secondary Schools with 46 Course Combinations.

Inauguration of CMF based Prison website by Hon'ble Home Minister

Targeted Efficient Transparent Rationing and

Hon'ble CM of Kerala, Sh.V.S. Achuthanandan Felicitating NIC
Kerala in the presence of Hon'ble Education Minister, Sh. M.A. Baby
for the successful implementation of hsCAPnic Project.
LCAPnic: This is a web based application for
conducting online counseling for the allotment of seats
for Lateral Entry Admission to B. Tech courses in Kerala.
FISHNET: It is work flow based system for the
Department of Fisheries, using LAPP. The project
components include knowledge based Portal with online
site administration facility and ReALCraft Application
(Registration and Licensing of Fishing Craft). It helps in
the registration of fishing vessels and for issuing fishing
licence based on Kerala Marine Fisheries Regulation
Act. This system is in place in all 9 marine districts of the
state and around 20 thousand vessels are already got
registered. Recommendation of the ISDA-95
Conference gets realization in the State of Kerala in 2009
and becomes a "Kerala Model" for replication in all the
Maritime states of India”.
Allocation Public Distribution System (TETRAPDS)
is a comprehensive package for automating the activities
of the Taluk Supply Offices, District Supply Offices and
Commissionerate of Civil Supplies. The Civil Supplies
Department has created a Central database in the State of
around 70 lakhs ration cardholders and 3 Crore family
members. The details of all the ration cardholders and their
family members can be accessed online from anywhere.
Information and Data Exchange Advanced System
(IDEAS) is a web based application developed in LAMP
to track the status of Petition/ Tapal/ File at the core with
many add on features. System supports G2E & G2C
services - Meeting Management, Knowledge
Management, Dash board, Reminder Service, Notice
Board, Messaging, Search Facility, Immediate attention,
Transfer details, visitors pass, security checkups and
Officer Alerts. It is successfully implemented in all the
departments of Govt. Secretariat and proceeding for all
other departments in the State.
Effective Management of LOC Issuance (EMLI):
http://sics.kerala.gov.in/emli. is a workflow based web
application developed for Finance Department for
automating the Issuance of Letter of Credit (LOC) based

17
 From the States
on the bills submitted online by the work executing
departments. 230 Division offices coming under
departments like PWD, Forest etc., are using this
application In the current financial year more than 20,000
bills have been processed and the LOC for Rs. 925 Crores
have been issued using the system.
Scholarship Management System
(http://dcescholarship.kerala.gov.in): The system
facilitates the registration, selection and disbursement of
various scholarships instituted by Government of Kerala
and Central government. The system generates the file
required to be submitted to the Bank for electronic transfer
of funds to the bank account of the students and
institutions. The key information of the application is bar-
coded and printed on the web-registration printout, which
is used for tracing the applications and verifications.
Excerpt of message from Principal Secretary Higher
Education, Government of Kerala Sh. Kuruvila John,
IAS
“I would like to appreciate the commendable work
done by the National Informatics Centre, Kerala State
unit for developing the Scholarship management
system and implement the same in a very short
time………”
SEVANA is a portal (http://sevana.gov.in) where
registered users can contribute information that they
wish to share with others. Anybody who owns any public
utility firm or offers any service can register their details
Hon'ble Minister for Revenue Sh. K.P. Rajendran inaugurated the
website of SEVANA in the presence of Hon. Chief Minister of Kerala
Sh. V.S Achuthanandan
18
Informatics, January 2010
in the site. Hospitals, hotels, supermarkets, etc or service
such as advocates, doctors, and tree climbers can
register. Registration is totally free and can be done from
any of the AKSHAYA centers.
'Patta': A software for helping the district
administrations in selecting the eligible candidates for
the issuance of 'Patta' (land assignment) at 6 locations in
Munnar area of Idukki district.
BPL Survey 2009: The software has been developed on
LAPP platform, for the Rural Development Department
for preparing the BPL list based on various social &
economical indicators identified by the government.
SAND is a fully computerized centralized mechanism
for booking and monitoring of river based sand in the
district. The System completely eliminates the presence
of middle men and reduces the price to an affordable rate.
The software is developed using LAMP.
District Collector Thrissur at the SAND counter
Dr. SMS Project (http://drsms.kerala.gov.in): it is a
health information portal for the information delivery
of health facility spread over Kerala. An SMS with
requested facility/specialty sent to the specified
number will receive the details of nearest centers with
the requirement. The facility centers are identified
based on the PIN Code specified by the requester.
Information includes Emergencies, Diagnostics
Procedures, Laboratory service, General services etc
spread in the various system of medicine, the details of
Doctors working in respective specialties, Blood Donor
details.
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
Hon. Chief Minister of Kerala Sh.V.S. Achuthanandan inaugurates
the statewide launch of the Dr.SMS services
FOILCONS*NET: It facilitates natural resource
management activities - on line and implants e-
Governance solution in the Directorate and field offices
of Soil Conservation Unit. It is developed using LAPP.
The project components are Scheme Monitoring System
for Watershed Project Implementation System, Budget
Monitoring System and Budget Estimates for the coming
financial year.
Taluk*Suite: It is an application for Modernization and
Computerization of Taluk/Village and an extension of
DC*Suite. All approved documents are prepared with
bar code and timestamps which can be verified at any
point of time. Counter, KIOSK, Web, SMS and WAP
based Citizen services are provided. The project is
implemented in Palakkad District using LAPP.
RR Online: RR Online is a G2G e-service from District
Revenue Administration for online submission of
Form24 to all Requisition departments coming under RR
Act. It is linked to DC*suite through an online tapal
module which will take RR data to DC*suite. The service
started in Malappuram District and presently 65 Banks
submitted 1361 RR cases for an amount of Rs
5,03,31,149 in online.
SPARK: Service and Payroll Administrative
Repository for Kerala (SPARK) is a G2E web based
Personnel Administration and accounts software
covering 5.25 lakhs employees. Permanent Employee
Number (PEN) for all employees are allotted through
the system. The system addresses all requirements in
HR, salary, Income Tax, generating Identity Cards and
Establishment Accounts matters. Technology used:
SQL Server 2005, ASP.NET. As on date spark is used
for salary processing in 78 departments, 4003 offices
and catering to 84940 employees.
From the States
Examination Management System : Examination
Management System is a comprehensive package for
candidate registration, processing and dissemination of
results of SSLC, Higher Secondary, Vocational Higher
Secondary, TTC, A-Level (SSLC Equivalency)
Examinations conducted by the respective Boards of
Government of Kerala. System requires capturing of
candidates' data and marks alone. Parallel tabulation and
data entry permits result publishing in the shortest
possible time.
Early Warning System(EWS): Community based
Early Warning System is a G2C service developed on
LAMP. EWS is a part of disaster management system for
district administration and it will provide disaster based
authentic information to the target audience through
EWS alerts or group SMS. The system is initially
planned to cover all sea going fisherman in the costal
districts of Kerala.
Hon'bl Revenue Minister Sh. K.P Rajendran inaugurating
EWS at Trissur
Friends Re-engineered and Enterprise Enabled
Software (FREES): It is a “single window scheme”
where citizens have the opportunity to pay all the taxes
and other dues to Government. The salient feature of the
project is the effective integration of IT and logistics for
citizen services. Major Services to be Offered through
FREES are KSEB (Power) bill, KWA (Water) bill, BSNL
- Land Phone and Post paid Mobile Phone Bills, 134
Services of Motor Vehicles Department, tax collection
for Corporation & board of Revenue, 35 services for civil
supplies department and university dues.
19
 From the States Informatics, January 2010

e-District : Palakkad and Kannur are the two districts in District Collectorate Suite (DC*Suite): DC*Suite
Kerala selected for the pilot implementation of the e- (District Collectorate Suite) is an integrated suite of
District project in Kerala. The project aims an integrated, applications for the District Collectorate. From a Tapal /
seamless and online delivery of citizen services at the Dak to the File and upto the disposal of the File, the entire
district level through automation of workflow, back-end flow is handled through the system. DC*Suite has been
digitization, integration and process redesign. It is implemented in 13 out of 14 districts in Kerala. This has
proposed to make available identified 42 G2C services also been implemented in the state of Goa for which NIC
through the Akshaya Centres, relieving people of the Kerala has extended all assistances.
need to go to various offices to get their work done. The
Central Projects: NIC Kerala is also implementing
citizen will be able to track the status of their applications
several central projects like eCourt, CIPA, NREGA, e-
through the e-District Web portal.
PRI, Agmarknet, Immigration, PlanPlus etc.
Awards and Felicitations
Excerpt of Message from Chief Secretary, Govt. of Kerala, Smt. Neela Gangadharan, IAS
I would like to congratulate NIC Kerala for the CSI-Nihilent e-Governance award 2008-2009 bagged
for the hsCAPNIC project under G2C category.

CSI-Nihilent e-Governance award 2008-2009 for hsCAPNIC under G2C category.

 CSI-Nihilent Award for the Customized Vahan-Sarthi Project in the year 2008.
 CSI-Nihilent Award for the Message (Integrated File-Flow Management System) Project in the year 2008.
 CSI-Nihilent award of appreciation - Kannur district for 2008-09.
 e-Governance awards 2008 of Government of Kerala- Palakkad district for DC*Suite, Trichur district for SAND and
Calicut district for Dr. SMS

For further information, contact:

Dr. K. Santhana Raman
State Informatics Officer
NIC Kerala State Centre, CDAC Building
Vellayambalam, Trivandrum

20
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
Haryana : Spearheading the e-Governance Initiatives
Haryana State is one of the
most progressive states of the
Indian union with total
geographical area (44212 Sq.
Km) of only 1.4% of the
country's geographical area. A
leading food grain producer, it
is also one of the states with
very high per capita income.
The Software & IT/ITES/BPO
services exports from the State
have increased to Rs. 17,000
Crores in year 2008-09. More
than 70 project proposals for
establishing Cyber/IT Parks in
Haryana have been technically
evaluated and recommended.
G. S. Bansal
State Informatics Officer, Haryana
sio@hry.nic.in
From the States
The state unit of NIC alongwith state storage capacity has also been
IT department and Hartron are approved.
facilitating the line
departments and assisting
them on all technical aspects.
A well-defined, transparent &
efficient system for the
systematic approval of the
departmental IT plans has
been put-up in place through
various High Power
committees. Their joint efforts
have significantly in (a)
Spreading ICT awareness &
usage across entire state (b)
Bringing transparency &
accountability in delivery of Hon'ble CM, Sh Bhupinder Singh Hooda,
Citizen services and (c) inaugurating NIC Data Center
Raising image of Haryana in
e-Governance at national and Haryana State Wide Area Network:
International levels. The NICNET WAN has been
Extensive information compilation, e s t a b l i s h e d a c r o s s H a r y a n a ,
documentation, interactions with Jury connecting all district Informatics
Panels & Survey Teams, organizing Centres with NIC-Haryana State Data
field visits and demonstration of e- Centre through VSATs & MLLNs.
Governance practices significantly SWAN vertical connectivity at
helped Haryana state to achieve 23 SNMC, DNMCs and BNMCs has
prestigious National Awards / been made operational.
Accolades. District Informatics Centres are
Integrated e-Governance operational in all the 21 Districts with
adequate computing and
Infrastructure (State & NICNET) communication facilities. The
State Level Informatics Centres: NICNET WAN connectivity is
Five Informatics Centres with through VSATs and MLLNs at DICs
comprehensive computing facilities, and further extended to Post Offices
LAN and communication facilities and other identified Central Govt
have been established. These are projects. The District level e-DISHA
linked to other major offices through Centers, providing G2C services,
MLLN/Wireless RF connectivity. have been connected to NIC-DICs for
Haryana State Data Center: A state data management services.
of art State Data Centre has been Video Conferencing : Multiple sites
established at Civil Secretariat with VC facility has been established at
10 Terra Bytes storage capacity, Haryana Civil Secretariat. Desktop
mission critical servers and managed based Executive VC facility provided
on 24X7 basis. Another Data Center to Chief Secretary and DGP. The VC
to integrate the SWAN and CSCs facility has been established at 20
infrastructure and to have a common District NIC centres. The SWAN
central repository with 35-40 TB based VC has been established
21
 From the States
between SHQ and DHQs, District Courts & District Jails.
Common Service Centers : The State is implementing,
Common Service Center Scheme for establishing and
operating approximately 1159 rural and 104 urban CSCs
(including 49 Showcase CSCs) known as “e-Disha Ekal
Seva Kendras” for the dissemination of various services to
the citizens.
Achievements under MMPs of NeGP & other important e-
Governance Projects
State Sector MMPs
OTIS: On-Line Treasuries Information System has been
implemented in all the treasuries & Sub treasuries. To
facilitate high taxpayers, a payment gateway interface
with SBI online has also been established.
HARIS: Haryana Registration Information System
facilitates Registration of Properties & Land and is linked
to Mutations & Jamabandies. Implemented in all Tehsils
and Sub-Tehsils it has resulted in significant increase in
revenue collection. Biometric and photograph of sub-
registrar alongwith buyer & seller introduced to bring
greater transparency.
HALRIS: Haryana Land Records Information System, a
complete Integrated Workflow Automation system of
Land Record components, provides a single Window
Interface for Deed Writing, Registration, Mutation,
Jamabandi and copy of ROR, also available at
http://jamabandi.nic.in
Sh.G S Bansal, SIO Haryana receiving award from the then Hon'ble
Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Sh.
Dayanidhi Maran for HALRIS Project
Panchayats: BPL (Below Poverty Line) House holds
Census Survey computerized for all districts. NREGA
(National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) Project
implemented in all districts. BRGF (Backward Regions
Grant Fund) Scheme (Plan Plus S/W) in pilot districts.
Regular updating of National Panchayats portal. e-PRI
22
Informatics, January 2010
DPR prepared after conducting detailed study of
processes in line departments at Sirsa district and State
headquarter.
VATMaCS: Value Added Tax Management, Assessment,
Collection System (modules like VAT Return Processing,
Dealers Registration, Fact Sheet Compilation, Statuary
Forms Inventory, Road Side Checking), TINXSYS (Tax
Information & Exchange System) Integration. Daily VAT
Collections integrated with OTIS to facilitate
reconciliation.
HACIS: House Tax Assessment & Collection
Information System implemented for all municipalities.
Birth & Death and Other Certificates Issuing System for
District HQ level Municipalities issued through e-DISHA
Centres.
Transport: The Issuance of computerized Driving
License using SARATHI and Registration Certificate of
Vehicles using VAHAN software are implemented in 42
SDM offices.
AgMarkNet: All 106 Mandies and 25 Sub Centers of
Agriculture Marketing Board facilitated to disseminate
prices of agriculture commodities on daily basis.
Exclusive website of HSAMB and Agriculture
department launched. AgRIS (Agriculture Resource
Information System) initiated at pilot district Rohtak.
Police: G2G Suite covering Personnel management,
Payroll System, Pension Accounting, Inventory & Vehicle
Management & Control System, Budget Control
including Appropriation & Variance Analysis, Audit
Control & Audit Para Monitoring System, Court Cases
Management and DAK & Crime Information System
implemented to facilitate police functioning. Dynamic
Police Web Portal with citizen interface launched. CIPA
(Common Integrated Police Application) is also being
implemented in all Police stations.
EERIS (Employment Exchange Registration Information
System) implemented in major district exchanges.
Exclusive web site launched.
e-District: A comprehensive network (LAN), a modern
IT training lab and District level e-DISHA Centers have
been established in each district. A suite of Office
automation package for district & revenue administration
has been developed and being implemented in each
district.
State Sector- Other e-Governance Projects
e-Health.Net: Software package for monitoring of
activities covering Prevention of Food Adulteration,
Processing Bed Occupancy & Mortality Rate, Directly
Observed Treatment Short-term for eradication of TB
disease, Medicine Inventory, Doctors Leave Accounting
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
and Family Welfare MIS, Malaria Monitoring, National
School Health Programme, Integrated Disease
Surveillance Project, OPD MIS etc developed and
implemented at Civil Surgeons offices.
Technical Education: Successfully running On-Line
Off-Campus Counseling project for all Engineering
Admissions since 2006. On-line Paperless Entrance Exam
System for admission to professional institutes
implemented since 2007.
Hon'ble Union Minister for Communications and Information
technology A. Raja, giving award for the Counselling Project
Haryana School Education Board: Interactive website
covering publishing of all Results, admit cards,
provisional certificates etc on web. Project RTB (Results
through Binocular) for on-line analysis of results of
Middle and higher exams implemented.
S o c i a l We l f a re - P e n s i o n s : H a P P I S
(http://socialjusticehry.nic.in), Haryana Pensions
Processing & Information System implemented for over
16 lac pensioners helps in timely disbursement. It has been
linked with Birth & Death, Ration cards & Photo ID cards.
Senior Citizens ID Cards: Software developed and
implemented for creating a database of Sr. Citizens and
issuance of ID Cards to them.
Food & Civil Supplies: a) e-Food.Net: Web Enabled
Food Procurement & Storage Monitoring System
implemented at all DFSCs. b) IISFM of FCI: IISFM
(Integrated Information System for Food Management)
implemented at FCI. c) Confonet: Consumer Courts
Network & Cases MIS implemented at 19 districts &
SHQ. d) Smart Card based Ration Cards - Pilot project has
been initiated as a centrally funded scheme.
PWD: a) IMPACT-Haryana, the Integrated Monitoring
of PWD ACTivities is a Web based Monitoring system,
which has been implemented across the state. b)
Integrated Works Monitoring System developed and
implemented for Public Health Engineering Department.
From the States
This is Integrated with Inventory MIS and Government
Accounting System. Haryana Urban Development
Authority has implemented web enabled Properties
Management System.
Finance Department: e-Finance.Net Project: A
Workflow based State Annual Budget Preparation, Budget
Revision, and Release Monitoring & Expenditure Control
System developed and implemented. The e-Finance.net
also includes POL Monitoring, Loans Processing,
CEFMATIS, Ways & Means Monitoring and an
interactive Website.
Planning Department: a) e-Governance IT Plan of
Economic & Statistical Organization, Employee's Salary
Statistics Analysis annually and system for Decentralized
Plan 2007-2012 developed and implemented. b)
DISNIC-Plan Ph-II pilot project for Jhajjar district taken-
up. Data Set and GIS based implementation Strategy
finalized.
Tourism Informatics: An on-line Reservation system for
Tourist complexes rooms & facilities with payment
gateway interface has been developed and implemented.
An interactive website for Haryana Tourism has been
developed and launched.
Integrated Services Projects
e-DISHA Ekal Sewa Kendra: One District level e-
DISHA Center established to provide hassle free services
to citizens through a single window in a transparent way.
State Portal: A content rich web portal
http://haryana.gov.in provides more than 15 services for
the citizens. Significant Haryana specific contribution has
also been made towards the India Portal
http://india.gov.in.
Haryana's State Portal
e-Governance Gateway Services (SSDG) : An
Integrated G2C Services solution has been developed and
implemented as SSDG PoC at the SNMC of SWAN for
23
 From the States
providing G2C services through CSCs (1159 Rural & 104
Urban) located across the state.
e-Courts Informatics Services: Sub Ordinate Judicial
Courts: SOCJIS: Workflow based Justice Delivery &
Judicial Information System was developed &
implemented at Ambala and Panchkula district court
complexes. VC Facility in High Court, District Courts and
District Jails in Haryana provided.
Integrated e-Office: Complete colution of 15 S/W
Packages like PIS, e-Salary, Court Cases Monitoring,
Government Accounting System, Office Inventory, File
Tracking, Grievances, RTI-MIS etc for G2G & G2E
Services implemented. IntraGov Haryana Portal has been
developed and e-Office suite has been integrated for
Haryana Civil Secretariat Intranet.
Sh. R. Chandrashekhar, Secretary, MoCIT interacting with SIO
and other officers of NIC Haryana
Government e-Procurement (GeP) System: Software
for tender processing developed and implemented and
more than 112 tenders have been published and processed.
State Sector Other Priority e-Governance Projects
General Elections: Extensive ICT support provided for
Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections 2009 which covered
Duty Assignment and Randomization of Polling booths,
polling parties, EVMs & Micro observers, GenSys
software and result compilation.
RTI Informatics: An interactive website has been
developed and launched for State Information
Commission. All the judgments & orders of CIC and ICs
are uploaded through a CMS from their office itself. An
Integrated RTI-MIS solution has been developed for
citizens to file applications through CSCs.
Support to other High Priority Offices: IT support in
terms of development, implementation and maintenance,
provided to Chief Minister Office, Chief Secretary office,
24
Informatics, January 2010
Lokayukta, Vidhan Sabha, Raj Bhawan, Labor
Commissioner office, Advocate General Office, Haryana
State Legal Services Authority and Public Relations &
Information Department.
Central Government level MMPs & other Multi State
Projects in Haryana
Some of the National Level projects where ICT initiative
taken/support rendered by NIC Haryana are Pensions,
Customs & Central Excise, e-Posts, Directorate of
Enforcement Project, National Unique ID Project,
Employee's Provident Fund Organization (EPFO)
Computerization Project, Regional Training Centre for
DoL Sponsored Hindi Computer training, High Court
Project and Chandigarh Judicial Academy (CJA) ICT
Services.
Accolades
 Golden Icon awards in National Conference for
VATMACS, HSEB Interactive website and online
paperless examination system.
 Silver Icon awards in Naional conference for
HALRIS, e-Health.net, HaPPIS, Mustard
Procurement Management system.
 Bronze Icon Awards in National Conference for RTB
 CSI-Nihilent e-governance excellence Winner's
award 2004 for best e-Governed State (Young
Category).
 India-Tech Foundation 2nd Runners-up Award of
Best e-Governed State 2004.
 Telecom India Excellence Winner's Award 2007 for
Best e-Governed State in e-Governance at
International Conference.
 Status of leader in e-Governance readiness index of
country, ranking at 4th position in India, report
released by hon'ble Union Minister IT &
Communication on Feb 6, 2008.
 4th Rank in Dataquest-IDC e-Governance Survey
2008 for “best e-Governed State of India.”
 Microsoft excellence award for OTIS.
For further information, contact:
Ghan Shyam Bansal
State Informatics Officer
NIC Haryana
sio@hry.nic.in
Edited by: Vivek Verma
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
ICT Initiatives in Himachal Pradesh Police
Sh. G.S. Gill, IPS & Director General of Police, speaks to Informatics on the various e-Governance Initiatives
undertaken successfully in the HP Police Department.
As Director General of Police,
Himachal Pradesh, do you think
Information Technology has a
m a j o r ro l e t o p l a y i n t h e
modernization of the State Police
Force?
GSG: Yes. No force can afford to be
left behind in this age of technology.
By the use of Information
Technology we can ensure better
service delivery to people in general.
What kind of Intranet is being
used by the HP Police to access
various applications? How can this
Intranet be used to tighten internal
security of the State?
GSG: We have achieved 100%
computerization of Police Stations
under CIPA (Common Integrated
Police Applications). Though a
majority of Police Stations have
already been connected through
Broadband and HIMSWAN, the
applications are primarily stand-
alone. Now we are in the process of
connecting all our Police stations and
other Police offices under CCTNS
(Crime and Criminal Tracking
Network and Systems) programme,
which is a Mission Mode Project
under NeGP.
In your opinion, what are the
major challenges faced while
implementing new e-Governance
initiatives in the HP Police?
GSG: The major challenge had been
the traditional mind-set of Police
Guest Column
personnel. For many years,
computer had been an object
inspiring awe and fear. We are
progressively changing that
mindset and have been able to
train a sizeable part of our force
in handling computers.
Connectivity is the other issue.
Some of our Police Stations are
located in far flung areas where
connectivity is through VSAT
only.
As far as usage of IT as a
tool in Police is concerned,
how well do you place HP
Police vis-a-vis other states?”
GSG: We have done quite well
Sh. G.S. Gill, IPS
and our progress is Director General,
c r e d i t w o r t h y. O u r 1 0 0 % Himachal Pradesh Police
computerization is far ahead of
initiatives such as online complaints,
the national average which is around
online compounding of Traffic
35% for which our efforts have
challans, registration of cases and its
received appreciation at many
status and submitting of printed copy
forums. The department won
of final reports in criminal case to the
National e-Governance award
courts have been implemented in the
(Bronze) for Citizen Centric Services
State. Our website is quite rich in
Delivery in the year 2008, thus being
content and is being updated
the first Police force to have won the
regularly. At thana level officers are
prestigious award.
being motivated towards IT by
Please elaborate various e- providing regular courses on IT basics
Governance Initiatives and by offering rewards to them by the
implemented by the HP Police in concerned District SPs. We have
created a specialised wing of around
the State. How did you motivate
600 men, called CTS
your officials to switch to the
(Communication & Technical
computerised systems at the Police
Services) for manning the computers
Thana level?
at Police Station level and training the
G S G : Va r i o u s e - G o v e r n a n c e staff deployed in the Police Stations.
25
 Guest Column
Do you feel that by using e-Governance and IT
tools, the HP Police has been able to bridge the gap
between service delivery and reality especially with
respect to efficient service, citizen centricity and user
convenience?
GSG: By the use of IT, delivery of citizen centric
services has shown definite improvement. But to say that
we have bridged the gap would be an over-statement. The
benefits of IT revolution are commensurate with the
prevalence of IT in society in general. In spite of an
impressive literacy rate in Himachal Pradesh, the reach
of IT is limited so far. But the scenario is changing fast
with a plethora of IT initiatives launched by the
Government.
The status of Common Integrated Police
Application (CIPA) implementation is quite
impressive in Himachal Pradesh. How has this been
achieved?
GSG: I attribute it to dedication and hard work of officers
and men of Himachal Pradesh Police who were entrusted
with the task of implementing CIPA. We received full
cooperation of MHA, NCRB and NIC authorities and
above all, that of our government.
The HP Police web portal at
http://hppolice.nic.in has won the National Bronze
Icon Award last year under citizen centric services
category in the National e-Governance Conference.
DGP Himachal Pradesh, SIO NIC with Hon'ble Chief Minister and
Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh after receiving the National
eGov Award
26
Informatics, January 2010
How do you ensure its regular updation at different
office levels?
GSG: We have designated Nodal officer for updating
and up-keeping of our web Portal. All the concerned
officers have been provided with email IDs and they
frequently remain in touch with the nodal officer for
sharing and exchange of information that is required to
be uploaded on the Web Portal from time to time.
What are the various citizen services offered by
the HP Police web portal? Are you satisfied with the
level of services offered through the portal or is
there scope for further improvement?
GSG: Apart from the general information regarding
Police department, HP Web Portal is also offering
some other services to the citizens such as online
complaints, compounding of traffic challans, on-line
Registration of FIR, finding status of complaints,
online searching of vehicles etc.
What do you perceive about the role of NIC in
introducing these e-Governance initiatives in the
Police Department?
GSG: NIC being an I.T. agency in the State, has played
a vital role in introducing and implementing all these e-
Governance initiatives in our Department with better
co-ordination and timely execution of the assignments
entrusted to them under the e-Governance programme.
Any future e-Governance initiatives planned for
the HP Police?
GSG: We plan to promote professionalism and make
the police functioning more transparent so that we are
able to provide state of the art services to public. The IT
should be used to increase efficiency and effectiveness
of the department so that a citizen can live in peace
without any fear whatsoever. In future more e-
Governance initiatives, like service verification,
verification for grant of licenses and passports, traffic
management, crime and criminal related information,
tracking of foreigners etc., are being planned.
Interviewed by: Ajay Singh Chahal
Coordinated by: Vivek Verma
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
Service Oriented Architecture: Security Perspective
As electricity, if used tactfully then many
useful things can be done but a little
carelessness can make a big loss. As the
same way Information, if accessed
by the authorized person, produces
effective output but unauthorized access
to the same may create unpredictable
nuisance. Many e-Governance
applications are being developed with
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), so
that to provide interoperability with
other applications and also application
security has been taken care. But the
interlinking point between two different
applications i.e. the Web Services found
still unprotected, which are going to
become the biggest interest of the
Hackers community. This scenario is
like, two plastic covered & secured
electric wires connected with each other
but the interlinking point is still naked
and exposed to the outer environment. It
is the time to address this kind of
dangerous interoperability. So, in this
article our focus is to provide a simple
but effective way for making Private
Web Services more secure.
Niladri Bihari Mohanty
District Informatics Officer, Peren
niladri.mohanty@nic.in
Ravindra Kumar Jaiswal
Scientific Officer/Eng-SB, Peren
ravindra.jaiswal@nic.in
e-Governance is suffering from out of
date data, improper integration
between applications, redundant
implementation of projects, non
consumption and cyber security
failures. After the Govt of India has
initiated National e-Governance Plan
(NeGP) in the year 2006, many ICT
based projects haves been
implemented. Among those one
of the most ambitious project initiated
by the Department of IT, GOI is,
rolling out of Citizen Service Centers
(CSC) across the country whose
success entirely depends on the
quality of Interoperability between
different e-Gov applications. Web
services are being developed for the
interoperability issue and depending
on the nature of interoperability; this
can be divided in to two categories.
Public Web Services: This can be
accessed by any external applications
for Information and process
interoperability.
Ex: Weather forecasting Services,
Railway enquiry Services, Global
Time Setting etc
Private Web Services: This can be
accessed by only a group of
authenticated external applications.
This kind of web services check the
authentication of incoming request
and only then send the response to the
consumer.
Ex: Payment gateway system
of Banking, Inter Banking
ATMs, Integration of CSCs
with Back end e-Gov
Application etc.
Many initiatives have been
taken up to scratch the ground
SOAP Message: Envelope, Header & Body
Technology Update
of SOA. Developments as well as the
migration to SOA based applications
have already been started. Protecting
the private or restricted Web Services
is still the head ach for many
developers. So, in this article our
focus is to provide a simple but
effective way for making Private web
services more secure.
Providing Security to the Web
Services and to validate the client
request can be done in two major
ways. One is by passing
authentication credentials through the
Simple
Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Header and other is through the
feature-rich Application
Programming Interface (API) of Web
Services Enhancement (WSE) Ver-
3.0. We have tried to focus the simple
way to check the authentication of the
secured Web Services by passing
security credentials through the
SOAP header without any third party
Software as well as a brief
introduction about the advance tool i.e
WSE-Security has also been
introduced.
Authentication through SOAP
Header:
Headers are the one of the three
elements that a SOAP message can
contain i.e The Envelope, the Header
and the Body.
27
Technology Update Informatics, January 2010

Envelope: This is the highest level & contains both
Header & the body.
Header: The header element is an optional and contains
metadata but can be effectively used to pass the
authentication credential in the request.
Body: This is the main portion of the message where all
the real data is located.
The Service provider validates the credential received
through the header element against the identity store and
sends the response to the client.
The Sequence of Request, Validation & Response
This type of authentication can only possible when the
client and the service provider share the trusted
relationship and exchange the password to be used in each
transaction. Basic steps to implement this authentication
are:
1. Create the Web Service
2. Create the custom Header Class
Public Class header Inherits system. Web.
Services. Protocols. Soap Header
3. Add the authentication method to the Class
Public uid As String
Public pwd As String
Public Function validate() As Boolean
If uid = #(db(uid)) And pwd =#(db(pwd))Then
Return 1
Else
Return 0
End If
End Function
-----------
Note:#db(uid/pwd):Hash value of the user
name/password fetched from the identity database
<WebMethod(),SoapHeader("obj",Direction:=SoapH
eaderDirection.InOut)>
5. Verify the credential supplied by the client by
calling authentication method through the object of
the header class.
Authentication through WSE-Security:
WSE provides advanced functionalities that are not
readily available otherwise. Security is one of the major
benefits of using WSE. And by using it; developers have
access to feature-rich and easy to use API for providing
enhanced Security to SOAP message. WSE 3.0 applies the
security at a higher level using a set of security assertions.
It enables Web Service to be secured imperatively in code
and declaratively using security policy. The concept of
WSE works on “security zone” methodology. Suppose
one security agency has been assigned to provide security
to an international cricket team during movement in their
entire tour. Then the agency is having two options. The
first one is to provide dedicated guards to each individuals
and the second one is, without giving security to
individuals, secure the zone (Rout) of their movement as
well as their source (Hotel) & destination (Field) for the
entire team. Definitely in the first look the choice is the
second one. In the WSE-3.0 also the concept is similar and
it provides the end to end security at client & server side as
well as transport security to provide a completely secured
zone.
Authentication type in WSE-Security:
Depending on the relationship between client
& service provider, two different type of authentication
can be implemented to secure the Web Services.
 Direct Authentication
If the Web Service provider and the consumer share the
security credentials and participate in the trusted
relationship then Direct Authentication is useful, in which
the credentials like password can be shared between the
parties.

4. Add the Header object to the Web Service

Public Class Service Inherits System. Web
Services. WebService
'' Create the object of the header class
Public obj As header
''Assign the object to the header class to the
web method
Direct Authentication

28
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in Technology Update

 Brokered Authentication
If the Web Service provider and the consumer don't
participate in direct trusted relationship then the Web
Service consumer need to get a security ticket from Key
Distribution Centre, 4th International PEPPOL Conference: Implementing
eProcurement with PEPPOL
Malmo, Sweden
February 9th -11th, 2010
http://www.peppol.eu/News/events-1/peppol-implementation-
conference

eHealth and The World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition

(WoHIT) 2010
Barcelona, Spain
March 15th 18th , 2010
http://www.worldofhealthit.org/

8th Annual Med-e-Tel 2010 Conference

Luxembourg, South Africa
April 14th- 16th, 2010
http://www.medetel.eu

7th International Conference on e-Governance

Brokered Authentication Indian Institute of Management
Bangalore (IIMB), India
whose responsibility is to verify the client and issue April 22nd -24th, 2010
security ticket. The Web Service provider provides the ICEG Program Committee requests your research contributions
service after verifying the ticket but not necessarily with the following themes and topics:
verifying the Client. Brokered Authentication can be * Public Health & ICT
implemented by 3 types. * Micro Finance & ICT
* e-Government and m-Government
2.1 Security Token Service
2.2 X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Last date for submission of papers is 15 February 2010
2.3 Kerberos Token http://www.iceg.net/2010

WSE Security provides an efficient way of message layer
security, which is having some advantages over as usual
transport layer security (Specifically SSL) that includes:
 It is not affected by standard Firewall but SSL need
the 443 port to be opened in Firewall
 Parts of the message (Intermediaries need to view so
as to determine the destination), can be signed or
encrypted instead of the entire message, where as in
SSL entire message need to be encrypted.
 Using message layer security, messages can be sent
over many different protocols such as SMTP, FTP, and
TCP without having to rely on the protocol for
security.
Cyber Security and Cyber Crime are complementary of
each other. So no security can be said as full proof as the
increasing rate of cyber crimes. Different kind of hybrid
security system can also be developed with the help of
powerful WSE-Security tool.
Reviewed by : Sh. Ramesh Singh
Senior Technical Director, NIC
4th International Conference on eDemocracy 2010
Department of Government and Public Administration
Danube University Krems, Austria
May 6th -7th , 2010
http://www.donau-
uni.ac.at/en/department/gpa/telematik/index.php
European Conference on eGovernment 2010
National Centre for Taxation Studies,
University of Limerick, Ireland
June 17th 18th, 2010
http://academic-conferences.org/eceg/eceg2010/eceg10-home.htm
IFIP e-Government conference 2010
Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration
Switzerland
August 29th - September 2nd, 2010
http://www.egov-conference.org/egov-2010
The 5th International Conference for Internet Technology and
Secured Transactions
London, UK
November 8th-11th, 2010
http://www.icitst.org/
Incase you know of any such conferences, please write to us at:
editor.info@nic.in

29
Technology Update
Cloud Computing: An Innovative Approach in IT
With every day innovations in IT
world, the way IT corporations
and business organizations
benefitting from such
innovations keeps growing.
Cloud computing will be a
remarkable change in the way
IT organs in the IT
organizations worldwide are
going to look like and perform
in the near future. It has already
become a buzzword in major IT
forums. The name cloud
computing was inspired by the
cloud symbol that is often used
to represent the Internet in flow
charts and diagrams.
Sendil Kumar
District Informatics Officer, Anuppur
kumar.sendil@nic.in
30
Cloud computing can be defined as a
paradigm shift in the use and
consumption of computing and its
resources over internet. With cloud
computing, business organizations
don't need to invest on expensive
computing resources. A new breed of
organizations (Cloud sellers) will
emerge which will offer the
computing infrastructure as a service
over the web i.e organizations mostly
small and medium enterprises no
longer need to invest on procuring and
maintaining computing resources
such as high-end servers, storage
servers, connectivity infrastructure
etc. The service provider will set up
and maintain the computing servers,
SANs and other resources. The
consumer organizations can simply
connect to the service endpoints to
perform their IT tasks. These
organizations will need to pay per
usage basis which is really going to be
good news to small and growing
business organizations.
Public Vs Private Clouds
A cloud can be made as private or
public. A public cloud sells services to
anyone on the Internet, (at present,
Amazon Web Services is the largest
public cloud provider). A private
cloud is a proprietary network or a
data center that supplies hosted
Cloud computing model
Informatics, January 2010
services to a limited number of
people. When a service provider uses
public cloud resources to create their
private cloud, the result is called a
virtual private cloud. Be it private or
public, the goal of cloud computing is
to provide easy, scalable access to
computing resources and IT services.
Categorization of services in Cloud
Computing:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):
The Infrastructure service includes
offering high end processing servers,
database servers, and the connectivity
backbone which are necessary to run
software applications. Amazon Web
Services provides virtual server
instances with unique IP addresses
and blocks of storage on demand.
Customers use the provider's
application program interface (API)
to start, stop, access and configure
their virtual servers and storage. In the
enterprise, cloud computing allows a
company to pay for only as much
capacity as is needed, and bring more
online as soon as required.
Software as a Service (SaaS): In the
software-as-a-service cloud model,
the vendor supplies the hardware
infrastructure, the software product
and interacts with the user through a
front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad
market. Services can be from Web-
based email to inventory control and
database processing. Because the
service provider hosts both the
application and the data, the end user
is free to use the service from
anywhere.
Platform as a Service (PaaS):
Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is
defined as a set of software and
product development tools hosted on
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
the provider's infrastructure. Developers create
applications on the provider's platform over the Internet.
PaaS providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway
software installed on the customer's computer.
Googleapps is a better example of a PaaS system.
A lot of new technologies in resource management such as
VMware have made it possible to build a robust system
with multiple operating systems and better optimize the
usage of the computing power with maximum reliability
of service. Thus, the service provider can build such multi-
OS system with a variety of application development tools
to cater to the needs of different types of application to be
run on different OS platforms.
Block diagram of a cloud computing environment
Key characteristics
 Agility improves with users able to rapidly and
inexpensively upgrade/degrade technological
infrastructure resources.
 Cost is claimed to be greatly reduced and capital
expenditure is converted to operational expenditure.
This significantly lowers barriers to entry, as
infrastructure is typically provided by a third-party and
does not need to be purchased for one-time or
infrequent intensive computing tasks. Pricing on a
utility computing basis is fine-grained with usage-
based options and fewer IT skills are required for
implementation (in-house).
 Resource and location independence enable users to
access computing systems using a web browser
regardless of their locations. As infrastructure is off-site
(typically provided by a third-party) and accessed via
the Internet, users can connect from anywhere.
Technology Update
 Multi-tenancy enables sharing of resources and costs
across a large pool of users thus allowing for:
 Centralization of infrastructure in locations with
lower costs (such as real estate, electricity, etc).
 Peak-load capacity increases (users need not
engineer for highest possible load-levels).
 Utilization and efficiency improvements for
systems that are often only 1020% utilized.
 Reliability improves through the use of multiple
backup sites, which makes cloud computing suitable
for business continuity and disaster recovery.
 Performance via dynamic ("on-demand") provisioning
of resources on a fine-grained, self-service basis near
real-time, without users having to engineer for peak
loads. Performance is monitored and consistent and
loosely-coupled architectures are constructed using
web services as the system interface.
 Security typically improves due to centralization of
data, increased security-focused resources, etc., but
concerns can persist about loss of control over certain
sensitive data, and the lack of security for stored
kernels. Security is often better than under traditional
systems in part because providers are able to devote
resources to solving security issues that many
customers cannot afford. Providers typically log
accesses, but accessing the audit logs themselves can
be difficult or impossible. Furthermore, the complexity
of security is greatly increased when data is distributed
over a wider area and/ or number of devices.
 Sustainability comes about through improved resource
utilization, more efficient systems, and carbon
neutrality. Nonetheless, computers and associated
infrastructure are major consumers of energy.
Cloud computing is going to be great boon for business
houses worlwide. With the introduction of netbooks,
anyone with an internet can perform tasks involving highly
complex processing and data loads. Netbooks even though
are smaller in processing power and storage compared to
PCs, with the introduction of cloud computing, netbooks
can take the place of personal computers and servers in the
IT architecture diagrams. With the evolution of cloud
computing, another concept called Remote Infrastructure
management is evolving rapidly and has been adopted by
some of the IT giants wordlwide.
Reviewed by: Dr. C.S.R. Prabhu
Deputy Director General, NIC
31
District Informatics Informatics, January 2010

Jalgaon: Focusing on Citizen Centric e-Governance

Located in the north-west
region of Maharashtra,
Jalgaon is famous across the
world for its world famous
tourist and heritage site
'Ajanta Caves' which is about
50 kms from the district
headquarters. Owing to its
main crop of Banana, the
district is also known as
'Capital of Banana' and has a
population of around 4
million. The district has
excellent rail and road
connectivity and is a central
The Jalgaon district centre of NIC started functioning in 1989 and since then a
lot of progress has been made in the computerization activities at the grass root
level. The district has pioneered many Citizen Centric E-governance initiatives
that have improved the lives of citizens. The Jalgaon district administration too
realized the importance of information dissemination and has changed from the
government's typical way of working by incorporating IT in its day-to-day
activities offering IT
enabled services to the
masses. The efforts were
even lauded at the 44th
National Annual
Convention of CSI in
October 2009 and the
district was conferred the
Award of Excellence in
District Category at CSI- Collector & DM Sh. Kunal Kumar (Left) and DIO, NIC
Nihilent e-Governance Sh. Pramod Borole(Right) accepting the award from
Award 2008-09. Sh.S Mahalingam, President CSI

destination to reach out to

Excerpt of the letter from District Magistrate Sh. Kunal
major places in India.
Kumar, IAS, Jalgaon
Use of ICT, not only helps us to bring services to the doorsteps of
citizens, it helps us to supervise working of government
machinery, thus making government people more accountable.

The District Collector's Office, involves several trips to the local

Jalgaon, is also one of the few
government departments in the
country to have been awarded with
ISO 9001 certification for its
Moiz Hussain structured and innovative methods of
State Informatics Officer, Maharashtra functioning. In addition to a very
siomsu@nic.in
informative website, e-Library etc,
Jalgaon's collector office added
another feather to its success by
initiating Public Grievance Redressal
System e-Lokshahi.
e-Lokshahi : The project aims at
changing the way people
Pramod D Borole communicate and interact with the
District Informatics Officer, Jalgaon
district authorities. Instead of the
pd.borole@nic.in
normal manual process, which
tahsildar's office; with the uncertainty
of meeting the right government
official when needed; and moving
from one desk to another just to get a
property document; people can
interact with the officials over the
phone by means of the IVR facility
that converges several
communication technologies
advantageously. The project provides
a 24 hour online public grievance
redressal system and a FAQ forum
that can be used widely through
telephone and mobile. To access the
service the citizens just need to dial a
local number.

32
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
A graphic representation of the services of e-Lokshahi
Salient features of e-Lokshahi
 A fully automated system operational 365 x 24 x 7.
 No geographical limitations to access the service
 No additional technical setup or infrastructure
required.
 Multi language (Marathi, Hindi and English) interface
provided.
 More than 90 services offered
IT projects implemented by NIC, Jalgaon
Jalgaon District Website: The Jalgaon district website
(www.jalgaon.gov.in) provides both static and dynamic
information. It has comprehensive details of district
administration, transport, RTI, tenders and government
schemes etc., while the dynamic component includes
online application E-lokshahi, E-library & daily updating
of information using VPN services. There are
downloadable forms for citizens, maps and other
statistical information that makes the site highly
informative and has recorded more than 1.25 lakh hits till
date.
e-Library Project: The E-Library application provides
General Resolution's of the collectorate to all employees
and citizens in digital format with search option on date,
period, branch & subject. More than 12,600 Government
Resolutions have already been digitized for easy access.
e-Tapal Project is used for storing & monitoring the 7
inward & outward letters in the collectorate.
Land Record Computerization is an ongoing process
District Informatics
with regular updating of 686056 land holders and
8,14,433 extracts of 7/12. More than 4 lakh extracts have
been distributed to citizens through the system.
Bio-metric Attendance System is being used for
monitoring the attendance of every employee of Jalgaon
Collectorate.
Website of Zilla Parishad (www.zpjalgaon.org.in) is an
informative website of Zilla panchayat that has been
developed and hosted for wider reach.
Panchayat Portal (www.panchayat.nic.in) Information
pertaining to all the 1,150 gram panchayats has been
uploaded on the portal.
Sarthi Project provides Smart Card based driving
licenses to the citizens. Till now about 34,000 Learning
licenses, 28,000 permanent licenses and 5000 duplicate
licenses have been issued, while 4000 licenses were
renewed in the district.
Vahan Project provides Smart Card based vehicles
registration mechanism. About 12,400 two-wheelers &
11,000 four-wheelers of the district have been registered
through the system.
Centrally Integrated Police Application(CIPA ) : All 33
police stations of the district have implemented this
project which seeks to computerize Diary, FIR,
Investigation, Prosecution and all other activities of the
police station.
SETU: 16 SETU or Integrated Citizen Facilitation
Centres are functioning in Jalgaon since 2005 to provide
32 types of certificates to the citizens. Around 20 Lakhs
certificates are issued through the system every year.
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) : More than
95,000 smart cards have been issued to the BPL labourers
till now for health services.
Communication Services: The District Centre also
provides all types of IT services to the government
departments of the district including project support,
communication, video conferencing, etc.
For further information, contact:
Pramod D Borole
District Informatics Officer
NIC, Jalgaon
mahjag@nic.in
Edited by: Anshu Rohatgi
33
District Informatics
Dungarpur: Marching towards IT Excellence
The district Dungarpur is
named after 'the town of
hillocks' and the capital of the
former princely state of
Dungarpur. Located in the
southern part of Rajasthan
between 23°20' and 24°01'
north latitude and 73°21' and
74°01' east longitude, the
town itself is said to have been
a Bhil 'Pal' or a hamlet of
'Dungaria.'
Dr. B.L Pitliya
District Informatics Officer, Dungarpur
bl.pitliya@nic.in
Vinay Khanna
District Informatics Associate, Dungarpur
vipin.khanna@nic.in
34
The NIC District Centre has made its
presence felt by making tremendous
strides towards empowering the
District Administration with IT tools.
This has not only strengthened the
district administration's own internal
processes but also increased the
efficiency and productivity of its staff.
The implementation of various E-
Governance Projects has further
strengthened the role of NIC in the
district.
National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme (NREGA):
NREGA software has been
implemented with a view to
effectively monitor the scheme's
implementation. Around 2,46,000
families have registered under this
scheme and got the Job Cards. Muster
Roll data of 48960 families & 246000
Job Cards have been uploaded onto
the portal http://nrega.nic.in.
Work of Data Entry under NREGA Project at Block Level
District e-Governance Project:
District Administration has opened 40
IT Kiosks in the district for
employment generation for computer
skilled unemployed youths. Intended
primarily to reduce the digital divide
by providing internet access and IT
enabled services to community, it also
facilitates citizen interface with the
government.
Informatics, January 2010
Computer-Bus Programme (CBP):
The program envisages the
implementation of a Computer
Education Programme in schools
situated in remote places. The
Program infrastructure includes
technology infrastructure, teaching/
learning aids & skilled human
resources and aims to provide the
students with IT skills and develop an
interest in school subjects.
This programme has the potential of
not only being used for formal
Computer Education at schools but
can also be leveraged for community
development programmes including
adult literacy, health and social
awareness.
The District LAN: A well structured
LAN has been established in District
Collectorate, having a number of
servers & clients which are being used
for various software
applications like Plan Schemes
Monitoring, Grievances
Monitoring, Dak Monitoring,
Relief Monitoring System etc.
All the major sections of
Collectorate have been
provided E-Mail & Internet
connectivity. Moreover, dial-
up connectivity is also being
provided to about 23 remote
offices.
L a n d R e c o r d
Computerisation
(APNAKHATA) : Dungarpur is one
of the districts where LRC was
launched on pilot basis. Data entry
and verification of data of all four
tehsils has been completed and tehsil
level Land Record Computerisation
computer centre named 'Khata
Kendras' have been made operational
where Jamabandies and Nakals for the
cultivators are being provided
instantly.
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
Under Land Record Computerisation ROR Distribution during
Campaign
Treasury Computerisation (TCS): Implemented for the
State Finance Department, it compiles the district level
government accounts under various heads. It comprises
of - compilation of accounts, Civil & Old Age Pension
payments, Stamps inventory, Accounting of Personal
Deposit (PD) and bill passing process. It produces
Schedule of Payments (SOP), Schedule of Receipts
(SOR), List of Payments (LOP), Cash Books, BT
Register, and various useful MIS reports. Sub treasuries
falling under treasury are connected through dial-up links
and the daily account is prepared, reconciled &
transferred to district server from Sub treasuries.
Data Depository System: The Employee's Data
Depository System has been implemented for 173 DDO's
of District Headquarter. State Centre has provided the
software for maintaining the paybill data of all the State
government employees of the district centrally.
Famine Relief Monitoring System: NIC Dungarpur
District Centre has designed, developed and implemented
the online system for computerisation of the whole
process of relief work beginning from proposal to sanction
and finally completion of the work. This package has a
quick access to the related information/ data of the work
executing agency, Panchayat, Gram Panchayat, and
Village. All queries can be handled and quick and error
free reports are generated. It also serves as a Management
Information System (MIS) to improve the presentation of
the information/ data, facilitating quick Statistical
analysis through online queries and reports.
Scheme Monitoring System: The software has been
developed and implemented for an effective planning,
execution and monitoring of different schemes for benefit
District Informatics
of the community. It serves as an MIS for speedy retrieval
of information and report generation.
District Website: A comprehensive website of the
District, http://dungarpur.nic.in, has been designed,
developed and hosted by NIC. It serves as a single point
contact for persons desirous of seeking information
pertaiing to the district. It covers all aspects of information
which could be of interest to a common man.
Videoconferencing: Videoconferencing is extensively
used by Hon'ble Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues and
Senior Officers use the VC facility extensively to interact
with the District Administration for monitoring the status
of various schemes/projects. Technical support for smooth
conduct of VC sessions is being provided by NIC District
centre.
Video Conferencing Activity AT NIC, Dungarpur
Training to Government Employees: To increase
computer skilled human resource for efficient usage of the
ICT tools special emphasis has been laid on the capacity
building programme for which various training
programmes have been conducted from time to time.
Training imparted to employees of different government
departments covers the basic computer concepts and also
the latest ICT tools. It has proved to be beneficial in
executing many computerized activities in the district.
For further information, contact:
Dr. B.L. Pitliya
District Informatics Officer
NIC, Computer Centre, Collectorate
Dungarpur, Rajasthan
Tel- 02964-230326
rajdun@nic.in
Edited by: Vivek Verma
35
District Informatics
Tirap : Spearheading e-Governance in Arunachal
Pradesh
Tirap, a tribal majority district
situated in the southeastern part
of Arunachal Pradesh, shares a
long international border with
Myanmar. The district derives its
name from the river Tirap, which
originates in the district and
flows through Changlang. A
large portion of the district
comprises the Patkoi Hills,
which consists of the Namdhapa
National Park. The park hosts a
wide variety of wildlife species,
from Mithun to the Himalayan
black bear, locally known as
takin, to the wild goat. The entire
terrain is very tough, marked
with high hills and deep gorges.
All the parameters which
measure the 'difficulty index'
rank high in the District.
Much of the tribal population
consists of the Nocte, Wancho &
Tutsa tribe. The vibrant folk-
culture of the indigenous tribes
has attracted many tourists to
visit Tirap.
Yogesh Kumar Yadav
District Informatics Officer, Tirap
yogesh.yadav@nic.in
36
Informatics, January 2010
NIC district Unit has taken rapid has also made attempts to popularize
strides in using ICT for promoting e- IT amongst the masses especially
Governance and improving citizen the local youths. The district website
service delivery in the district. and the Jan Suvidha (facilitation)
Besides providing support to the centres are key medium which has
District administration the efforts helped citizens participation in
has brought transparency & governance and service delivery
efficiency in governance. The Unit respectively.
Message from the then Deputy Commissioner Sh. Ankur
Garg, IAS
I congratulate the entire District Unit of NIC Tirap, under the
able leadership of Sh. Yogesh Yadav. DIO who has worked
tirelessly and relentlessly providing support & services to the
district administration. It is indeed heart-whelming to know that Tirap,
which has been in the news only for law and order and insurgency related
issues is today figuring as an e-governance success story in the flagship
journal of NIC Informatics. Today, NIC is a household name in the District
and due to its initiatives; computer literacy has taken a tremendous leap. The
citizens have seen the power of IT in action and the various citizen centric
services and their participation in the decision making process through the
District website has definitely made them feel an active part of the
development process rather than just passive beneficiaries.
Website of the District: plans are finalized after taking
suggestions directly from the citizens
The official website of the District
through the website. Submission of
(http://www.tirap.in) has been
feedback on various development
designed & hosted by NIC which
schemes in the district, applications
provides information related to
under RTI for inclusion / deletion of
people, land, climate,
history, fairs & festivals
besides gives information
related to administration
and latest news about the
district. The citizen
services section facilitates
various form downloads,
Jan suvidha centres,
grievances redressal etc.
The District development
Tirap official website
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
names in electoral rolls, appointment with government
officials etc. can be sought online.
Jan-Suvidha Centres: Jan Suvidha centres provides a
single-window platform for delivery of various citizen
services (like licenses, certificates etc.) at DC office,
Khonsa using an application software developed by
NIC State Centre. The software has automated the
process of issuance of various types of certificates and
licenses. It provides one stop solution to the citizens,
facilitating various services by the administration. The
initiative has promoted transparency in the government
functioning highlighting various reports on the web and
monitoring of pending cases at the level of DC or ADC
himself. The delivery of the documents have been made
time-bound which has resulted in lowering of the
average time for the processing of citizens application
from earlier two months to about three days at present.
Jansuvidha Center at Khonsa, Dist HQ
Mobile Jan-suvidha: Under this model the existing
Jan-suvidha set-up shifts to any remote village of the
District for a day and provides services at the door-steps
of the citizens. The mobile initiative of NIC Tirap has
gained popularity amongst the villagers of the District
as it saved precious time, money and energy, which was
earlier wasted in making futile trips to the DC office.
Certificates like Scheduled Tribe, Income, Residency
etc are printed on the spot along with a digital
photograph then laminated and handed over to the
citizens on the same day.
District Informatics
Projects implemented are
Dhanvantri: An application software to computerize
the process of OPD registration at District Hospital,
Khonsa was developed and implemented. The software
integrates the fee collection modules at various
locations in the Hospital and tracks the flow of
medicines from the Central Hospital Store to the
dispensaries / CHCs / Individual patients etc. The
application has helped in creating database of patients
history thus facilitating diagnosis on subsequent visits.
Further, it can generate reports to track particular
medical problems prevalent in different parts of the
District. Reports can also be generated to see which
patients, were not provided free medicines by the
hospital authorities. Since its launch approx. 25,000
patients have been registered through the software.
Personnel Management System: Computerization of
pay-bills, Leave Management apart from creating
personal database of the employees of DC office has
been automated using the Personnel management
software. Further, it is proposed to launch that a thumb
impression based attendance system for all employees
of the office.
Besides these efforts, the NIC unit is giving training to
local tribal youth on using basic computer
applications and also taking steps to popularize
computer literacy amongst the masses. Given the
difficult conditions under which this is being
achieved, and that too in a part of the country where IT
revolution is many years away, it is indeed a laudable
and noble effort.
For further information, contact:
District Informatics Officer
National Informatics Center
Tirap District Unit, Khonsa
Arunachal Pradesh
khonsa@nic.in
Edited by: Prashant Belwariar
37
 International e-Gov Update Informatics, January 2010

International e-Gov Update

UK launches Online Flood Risk Indicator Tool
In an effort to manage flood risk and the impact of floods the
United Kingdom's Land Registry has combined its data with the
Environment Agency's flood data to launch its new Flood Risk
Indicator. This indicator is an online tool to assess local flood risk
of either a property or an area. The indicator delivers textual
results indicating flood risk to registered land. The tool has been
made available online in the 'Find-a-Property' section of the Land
Registry website.
Those using Flood Risk Indicator can access clear and reliable information about the possible risk of flooding. Since the
Environment Agency continually improves its flood data, the Flood Risk Indicator will be updated accordingly with latest
Environment Agency information.
Property holders can purchase Flood Risk Indicator online via the Land Registry website. After keying in address details
viz. House no/name and Postcode, these holders will receive a Flood Risk Indicator in a couple of minutes, stating whether
the specific area of land purchased is likely to experience flooding or not. Customers can instantly download their result,
which indicates whether or not their property is affected by a flood plain.
This technology seems to be very helpful in raising customer's awareness on floods and its possible risk and thereby helps
them to plan and prepare for the future with better information.
Visit - https://www.landregistry.gov.uk/

Biometric Passport in Netherlands

Keeping security at its forefront, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Netherlands, have now started to process biometric
passports, i.e. travel documents and visas which carry fingerprints ,for all the diplomatic and civil servants. The said step is
formulated in order to protect against fraud and forgery, thereby making it easier to check that the person submitting the
document is also the rightful holder. Alternatively, this initiative will make it more difficult to falsify passports or use
someone else's passport.
Prior to this, the passports of Netherlands had a built-in electronic chip containing the personal details of the holder and a
digitized passport photograph. As of now, the same chip will also contain a digitized image of the holder's finger prints,
which will make it possible to compare the printed information via electronically, with the passport holder's features. The
improvement in security protection provided by biometric information is in the interests of both government and the
citizen.
Dutch nationals living abroad can apply for a passport at a Dutch embassy or at most consulates. It doesn't matter if anyone
lives in the region served by the embassy or is only there temporarily.
Visit - http://www.minbuza.nl

Official e-Government Service Portal of Oman

The official e-Government Services Portal (www.oman.om) has been launched under the umbrella of Oman's national IT
strategy, which marks a major milestone in this era of digital societies.
Aiding in the transformation of Oman into a sustainable Knowledge Society, the official portal uses digital technologies to
improve the efficiency of internal processes and is designed to serve the public quickly, effectively, and in an interactive
manner.
38
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in International e-Gov Update

The Portal is bilingual (English and Arabic) and the layout and navigation is easy to use. The content of the portal has been
structured keeping citizen centricity in mind giving access to a variety of services. The govt. portal also authenticates entry
to other government services and permits access to their integrated services. The portal has a comprehensive repository of
government services with over 600 services provided by 23 government agencies. These services are categorized under
Citizen and Residents; Business and Visitors sections of the website. Oman.om strongly supports empowerment of
citizens and residents by enabling them to electronically interact with government organizations. Through the Portal the
citizens can have an easy access to various services related to immigration, health and sanitation, education, culture and
entertainment.
The Portal embraces the Accessibility standards and complies with W3C standards, to accommodate visually challenged
users. The portal not only caters to citizens residing in Oman, but also provides important information for those living out
of Oman.
Visit - http://www.oman.om

Judiciary Portal of Malta

In a bid to provide the public with extensive information resources on the Maltese Judicial System, the Judiciary, the
Judges and Magistrates and the courts they sit in, the Maltese Judiciary decided to go online, by launching their website,
http://www.judiciarymalta.gov.mt.
This judiciary portal is intended to deliver some functional information about the judiciary and to provide a glimpse into
the work culture of the 38 members of the judiciary in Malta which includes 20 Judges and 18 Magistrates. The portal also
provides a latest news section and an insight on the history of the Judiciary and important judgments.
Apart from providing easily accessible online information to all its citizens on various functions of Maltese judiciary
system, the portal also highlights on court structure, administration and supplementary staffs. Other information e.g. list of
Judicial Assistants and Jurors in Malta, Interview of Judges, links to various websites related to Maltase and European
Union judiciary, and full text of the judgments made by the judiciary of Malta are another features of the website. Among
other sections, the 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ) function on the judiciary website is of significant importance as it
helps people in understanding the courts, their role, history and people.
Visit - http://www.judiciarymalta.gov.mt

Denmark's National Local Climate Map Project

The Local Government Denmark (LGDK) has recently launched the
Danish Local Climate Map, a source of information for everyone in
the municipal world working on climate change issues. The map
allows users to learn about the efforts of Danish municipalities in the
field of climate change; it is an opportunity for someone to find
inspiration for the work that needs to be done in his/her municipality.
The Danish version of the Local Climate Map has been online for
some time already. Therefore, Local Government Denmark has
chosen to launch an English version in order to provide inspiration to
municipalities abroad that face same climate challenges.
Currently there are 18 municipalities in the map and more are being added. The municipalities offer many different
solutions to the problem of climate change, both regarding mitigation as well as adaptation to climate change.
Visit - http://www.kl.dk

Compiled by: Informatics Team.

39
 Cyber Governance Informatics, January 2010

Cyber Governance
A look at some of the recently launched Indian Government Websites….

National Anti Doping Agency (http://nada.nic.in)

With a vision to establish a 'dope- free' sporting nation, the National Anti
Doping Agency has come up in a more potent way with a website to
promote, coordinate and monitor the doping control programme in sports
in all its forms in the country. The content rich website, discusses a slew of
information about the agency, its programs, resources and as well as anti
doping codes and conducts along with prohibited list of drugs. Detail
information on therapeutic use and exemptions of particular medicines as
treatments in case of illness is also incorporated. The website has been
developed with a view to provide information and ensure better dissemination of information and greater accessibility.
The website incorporates the RTI annexure and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) providing answers to some of the
common queries of the people. The launch of this website is an important step for the agency to show how they uphold
their commitment in fair play and honesty which are very important ethos of any sport.

Jammu and Kashmir Judicial Academy (http://jkja.nic.in/)

Since 1981, The J&K Judicial Academy is engaged in providing
comprehensive training facilities for State Judiciary, the High Court of Jammu
& Kashmir. Recently it has added another feather to its cap with the launch of
their website. The motive is to improve the quality of judicial performance by
helping the judges to acquire the tools for professional competence with
extensive discussions on trainings and future projects in the judicial arena. The
content of the website is all about the Academic Activities, its Administration
and Faculty in the academic campuses of Jammu as well as in Srinagar.
Modules like useful links, archives of their newsletters and upcoming events
are also incorporated in the homepage. Besides, the website also informs about the list of training programmes organised
by Judicial Academy so far at Jammu and Srinagar. To know more about the academy's history and its aims and objectives,
visit the site.

Biju Patnaik State Police Academy (http://bpspaorissa.gov.in/)

The Biju Patnaik State Police Academy is a centre of excellence in police
training in the country, encouraging highest standard of performance and
professionalism to each trainee. The website of this academy covers all the
details that it has and it does for the Orissa police personnels. The key
feature of this website is that, a visitor can use it as an apt search light to
enrich his knowledge on the trainings and then its impact on the new
generation of Orissa Police. The content of the website details about the
organisation, staff, cadet's directory, its partnership with other institutions
and renders timely informations on results, tenders, and accolades of the
department. Moreover, the website gives elaborate and comprehensive details about the training activities, course
calendar along with the updated news and events.

Contributed by: Lokesh Joshi, NIC

40
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
National Portal Update
CIC Online bagged CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2008-09
We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose.
India being one of the largest democracies in the world, the
trepidation for violation of fundamental rights of its citizens
always looms. Accustomed with this fact, the Government of
India has always put emphasis on making the life of its
citizens easy, smooth and move ahead in making India truly
democratic with secular judgments. Keeping this in mind, the
Right To Information (RTI) Act has been established which
confers the authority to enjoy fundamental rights by each and
every Indian Citizen under Article 19 (1) of the constitution.
RTI empowers every citizen to seek justice and raise voice
against any corrupt Government body at the click of the
mouse. It bestows the right to access to information held by a
Public Authority and in case, anyone have been denied the
access to information he/she may file Appeal / Complaint
before the Central Information Commission (CIC) using the
CIC Online.
Central Information Commission Online acts as single point
source of information for all registered Complaints and
Appeals. For its outstanding performance in understanding
the need of the hour in delivering not only honest decisions
but also rendering speedy decisions, the CIC online
(http://rti.india.gov.in) bagged “Award of Excellence” in
Project Category G2G/G2C by the Computer Society of
India in the CSI Annual Convention held on October 9, 2009
in Pune. CIC Online has been conferred the CSI-Nihilent e-
Award Distribution Ceremony
National Portal Update
Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Governance Awards 2008-09 for its unique e-Governance
initiative in terms of Filing RTI complaint and Appeals
Online. The project has been widely acclaimed for successful
implementation and enhancement it brought while filing
petitions online.
Filing of RTI Complaint and Appeal Online with the CIC has
institutionalized the convergence of ICT with the Indian
Right to Information Act, 2005. The established provisions
of the RTI Act, 2005 regards for a practical regime wherein
the citizens can have secure access to information, which
have been under the control of Public Authorities (PA) so as
to promote transparency and accountability in the matters
concerning with and working of the Public Authorities, the
Central Information Commission and the State Information
Commissions.
In order to facilitate those citizens who files appeal and
complaints before the Commission; two simple user friendly
online forms have been designed in congruence with the RTI
Act. Whereas on the other hand an internal workflow system
has also been designed, developed and implemented within
CIC, which ensures proper monitoring of the entire activities
during disposal of a case since its filing. Hence CIC Online is
certainly a process of Public Participation which aims at the
improvements in the core governance of a public institution.
e-Governance has given new dimensions to the system of
governing nations and enhancing citizen services by making
the process of governance and public administration much
more efficient and effective. e-Government reveals the
ultimate vision for public administrations and governments
to undergo a huge modernization and reorganization. e-
Governance has also played an essential role in improving
governmental processes (e-administration), connecting
citizens (e-citizens and e-services) and building external
interactions (e-society). In this step, National Portal has been
taking number of initiatives to provide one stop solution
efficiently by integrating public services from a citizen's
point of view.
Contributed by: D. P. Misra, NIC
41
 In the News Informatics, January 2010

In the News
NIC Anantnag, J&K provides technical support to the
PM's entourage
Recently, Hon'ble Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh visited
Anantnag to inaugurate the Qazigund-Anantnag Rail Link in J&K.
He was accompanied by Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the
UPA; Sh. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Health; Dr. Farooq
Abdullah, Union Minster for New and Renewable Energy; Smt.
Mamta Banerjee, Union Minister for Railways; Sh. Omar Abdullah,
Chief Minister, J&K and other dignitaries including Senior Civil and
Police Officers of J&K. Hon'ble PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurating Qazigund-
Anantnag Rail Link
NIC Anantnag was required to set-up a Computer Cell in the PM
Camp Office at Railway Station Khandipahri-Anantnag. The Computer Cell established by NIC was visited by various
Ministers and Officers from PM Office. Besides Computers, Printers, Photo Copier and Fax, high speed Internet
Connectivity was also provided in the Cell. The facility was extensively used during the last two days.
The facilities provided by NIC were appreciated by the Officers from PM Office is a matter of great satisfaction that
Officers from PM Office spoke highly in voice about NIC, its nation-wide presence and the facilities provided by NIC
during such profile visits.
Jit Raj, Jammu & Kashmir

State level workshop on e-Procurement in Punjab

A three-day state level workshop, from 7th-9th December 2009,
was organized on e-procurement application at Punjab Engineering
College Chandigarh by Punjab Roads and Bridges Development
Board (PRBDB) with the support of NIC HQs and NIC Punjab.
The workshop was inaugurated by Sh.Kulbir Singh, IAS Secretary
(PWD) Govt. of Punjab, Dr. (Sh.) Manoj Dutta, Director PEC, Sh.
M. S. Nijjar, Joint Secretary PRBDB, Sh. Navneet Kukreja, SIO
Punjab. Senior faculty members from PEC and all prominent
officers of PRBDB were present during the inauguration ceremony.
Secretary (PWD) emphasized on urgent need for electronic
SIO Punjab addressing participants in Inaugural
tendering process and appeal for speedier implementation of
Ceremony GePNIC in PRBDB while reviewing the steps taken till date to
initiate the project.
The objective of the workshop was to train senior officers and the contractors/prospective bidders to build ground
preparedness for the implementation of GePNIC . The opening and last day of the workshop were devoted to two different
batches of PRBDB officers. Participants of the rank of Chief Engineers and Executive engineers from all over Punjab
participated in the workshop. The session on second day was especially scheduled for contractors/ prospective bidders.
The participants practiced all the functionalities of GePNIC in hands-on sessions. The queries of the participants were also
taken up in different sessions by the faculty.
Sh. Ganesh Kadanga, PSA and Smt. Usha Saxena, PSA from NIC HQs conducted the workshop and was actively
supported by Sh. Vikram Jeet Grover TD, Sh. Anoop Jalali, PSA & Sh. T.S. Ramesh Scientific Officer from NIC Punjab.
Vikram Jeet Grover, Punjab

42
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in In the News

Web enabled scholarship scheme launched in Tamil

Nadu
Scholarship scheme which is part of the e-district programme of the
Tamil Nadu Government was inaugurated by Hon'ble Minister for
Backward Classes and Hon'ble Minister for IT on November 23, 2009.
The scheme would benefit around 4.25 lakh students belonging to BC,
MBC and denotified communities studying in more than 1100
Government and Government-aided institutions. The project was driven
by Secretary (IT), Government of Tamil Nadu and CEO, Tamil Nadu E- Hon'ble Ministers of BC, MBC and MW and IT at the
Governance Agency. The complete workflow system was developed launch
using Open Source technology and implemented by NIC, Chennai. The
new system not only cuts down the delay in the issue of scholarship but also makes the status of the scholarship application
available through the website http://edistrict.tn.gov.in to the student. The Secretary, BC MBC welfare and Commissioner,
BC MBC welfare were instrumental in implementing the process changes and the success of the programme. Necessary
training at the state & district level was imparted. The system has been implemented in all districts of Tamil Nadu and is
being used by the State & District BC & MBC offices and the institutions. The status of the scholarship is available through
Common Service Centres and on internet.
R.Gayatri, Tamil Nadu

SUGAM, Jodhpur, bags awards at CSI

The SUGAM Project, a Government to Citizen (G2C) service from
Jodhpur district in Rajasthan has received a special appreciation
award by the Computer Society of India- Nihilent as part of the e-
Governance Awards 2008-09. The award was received at Pune by SIO
Rajasthan Indu Gupta at the 44th CSI Convention this evening at a
glittering ceremony.
SUGAM, the single window system was set up by the District
Collectorate at NIC Jodhpur Centre to provide multifaceted services
to the citizens through a single window which included domicile,
SC/SC, State and centre level- certificate, Ration card etc. All the
Smt. Indu Gupta, SIO Rajasthan receiving the award for
SUGAM at the 44th CSI convention in Pune reports and certificates are printed in Hindi. It has proven to be a boon
for the citizens of the district. The software has been developed by Sh.
H.S. Gehlot DIO & TD and Sh. Ravi Mathur DIA Jodhpur. Two new options, permission letter for birth death certificate
and renewal of arms license has been added in the previous years. State informatics Officer & Sr. Technical Director, NIC
Sh. Indu Gupta informed that “the number of beneficiaries under SWS is increasing every day.” The appreciation comes as
a pat on the back of NIC which has been spearheading many e-governance projects in the state. The software would now be
replicated all over the state of Rajasthan.
Chandan Sen, Rajasthan

Workshop on e-Granthalaya and NewsNIC Software for Automation and Networking of

Libraries
A three day “Workshop on e-Granthalaya and NewsNIC Software for Automation and Networking of Libraries” was
conducted during 28-30th Oct, 2009 at Training Division, NIC, New Delhi.
The workshop was conducted for the benefits of the libraries from all parts of the country which are using/want to use e-

43
 In the News Informatics, January 2010

Granthalaya software for automation and Networking. The e-

Granthalaya workshop was attended by 31 number of library officers
from various organizations and libraries
The Workshop was organized by Library & Information Services
Division of NIC. The Workshop was inaugurated by Dr B K Gairola,
DG, NIC while keynote address was delivered by Prof (Smt.) S P
Singh, Department of Library and Information Science, University
of Delhi. Sh. M Moni, DDG, NIC delivered theme note and
highlighted various issues related to the ICT applications in Libraries
while Sh. P K Upadhyay, TD & OIC, NIC Library delivered the
Dr B K Gairola, DG(NIC) during inauguration function Introduction of the Agenda/software. The Workshop was Co-
ordinated by Sh. Ram Kumar Matoria, TD and hands-on were
managed by Sh. Edward Barwa, Scientist C, Sh. Shushant Panigrahi, and Sh. Ravi Ranjan, Scientist B. Participants were
given exhaustive training and hands-on for use of various modules of the e-Granthalaya Software.
Ram Kumar Matoria, NIC

Launch of mGovernance by the Hon'ble Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Prof. (Sh.) Prem Kumar Dhumal,
formally launched four mobile phone based services for the Copying Agency,
Public Grievance Redressal System (eSamadhan), Arms License Issuance
System (eShastr) and Election Communication Plan MIS. This has started the
process of moving towards mGovernance in the State. A number of senior
officers of the State Government were present during the launch ceremony.
The SMS Gateway interface has been provided by the Department of IT, HP. The
Principal Secretary (IT) HP Government gave a presentation on the usage of
SMS Gateway and the SIO NIC Himachal Pradesh demonstrated the eShastr and
eSamadhan services using SMS gateway. The CEO Himachal explained the
usage of SMS gateway during the recently held by-elections.
All the applications have been developed for the convenience of the citizens so Hon'ble CM Prof. (Sh.) Prem Kumar Dhumal
viewing SW generated SMS
that they don't have to visit the Government offices again and again. All the
applications SW are NIC developed and the SMS gateway interface has also
been incorporated by the NIC Himachal Pradesh State Centre.
Ajay Singh Chahal, Himachal Pradesh

G-FACTS application software inaugurated in Patna

G-FACTS (Government Financial Accounting System) design &
developed by NIC Bihar State Unit is aimed to be a generic Financial
Accounting System suitable for government financial transactions.
This uses Double entry Accounting system which is considered to be
more transparent, accurate and error free approach. This can assist any
office for preparing Accounts, Cash Books and other analysis reports
required for day-to-day financial Management. This helps in preparing
Cash Book, Bank Book, Journal Book, General Ledger, Subsidiary
Ledger, Trial Balance, Sub Trial, and Balance Sheet, Bank
Inaugural session during Training on G-FACTS at Patna Reconciliation Statement, Income and Expenditure Statement etc. This
can be implemented to Monitor Financial transactions between District,
Blocks and Panchayats and also prepare various registers such as Allotment Register, Cheque Book Register, Asset Register,

44
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in In the News

Utilization Certificate etc. This is being implemented in 534 blocks (two offices each), 38 DRDAs. It is also being proposed
to move it to Panchayat level.
Sh. Vijoy Prakash, IAS, Principal Secretary, Rural Development Department, GoB spoke at length about the use of G-
FACTS application software in his inaugural address during Training on G-FACTS at L.N.M.I., Patna along with Sh. Santosh
Kumar, Sr. Technical Director & SIO, Bihar and Sh. Shailesh Kumar Shrivastav, Technical Director & Project Co-ordinator.
Rajiv Ranjan, Bihar

Inauguration of 'e-Mutation Software' at Bero circle office, Ranchi, Jharkhand

Recently, the process of land mutation was computerized at the Bero circle
office, Ranchi district with the inauguration of e-Mutation software, by IAS Sh.
K K Sone, Deputy Commissioner.
Sh. Sone handed over the correction slip generated through the e-Mutation
system to Sh. Kailash Ohdar and Smt. Ashrita Bara at a simple function
organized on the occasion and declared that the e-Mutation system designed &
developed by NIC, District Centre Ranchi, will be implemented at other circles
of the districts also.
The web based software, developed in ASP.Net uses SQL Server database and
is role based on assigned duties. The operator enters the details of buyers,
Sh. Sone (L) handing over the computer generated
correction slip at Bero sellers, plots etc., and generates the slip for the applicant. The dealing assistant
verifies the entered details and generates 'General Notice (Proclamation
Notice)' & Correction Slip after the mutation. Earlier, the Revenue Karamchari
used to verify the documents physically, plot from Register II and submit his report. The Circle Inspector verifies the report
submitted by Revenue Karamchari and the Circle Officer reviews the report submitted by both the CI & the karamchari
respectively. In case of acceptance by the officer the updating of Register II is carried out through the software, explained Sh.
Deepak Kumar, DIO who was present on the occasion.
Prashant Belwarier, Jharkhand

Traffic Offence Monitoring System software launched at SP's Office, Kohima

NIC Kohima District Centre has developed “Traffic Offence Monitoring System
Software,” the first of its kind for the Traffic Personnel of Kohima District, Nagaland. The
official launching was held at the SP's Office Kohima in the presence of media persons and
Kohima traffic personnel's where Sh. Zekotso Mero, SP Kohima formally launched the
software. During the presentation, Sh. J.G. Lorin, PSA & DIO, NIC Kohima said that the
software is user friendly and reports for various formats required by the Department can be
acquired. The software is developed in MS Access to be installed on a standalone system
and the MIS records the offence committed by the vehicle will be stored. DIO requested the
user Department to have secured backup systems.
Sh. Mezayi Tetseo, Regional Transport Officer, Kohima appreciated the NIC Kohima for SP Kohima launching the Software with
developing the software and quoted that the initiative help in the revenue earning of the RTO Kohima (Left) and DIO Kohima
Government. Sh. Zekotso Mero, SP Kohima thanked the DIO Kohima and his team for the (Right)
substantial assistance to the traffic section which is the first of its kind in Nagaland. He
highlighted the various problem of the traffic congestion due to its varied nature and said that the new software will go a long
way in solving the traffic congestion partially in the town. Sh. Relo T Aye, Dy. S.P (T) Kohima chaired the programme and Sh. T
Metha Addl. SP Kohima gave the vote of thanks.
Swedesenuo Natso, Nagaland
For latest and up-to-date news and information about e-governance activities across the Country,
Visit Informatics Newsonline
http://informatics.nic.in/newsonline

45
Perspective
Thinking beyond Project Management
The convergence of
technology is ushering in a
new epoch to render services
to the users. A project varies
considerably in size, duration
and involves a small group of
people or large numbers in
different parts of the
organizations. Project
management is a discipline
for execution of IT projects.
But, organizations are striving
to improve its performance by
combining deliverables from
several related projects
through Programme
Management in place. Its
management involves
application of improved
technologies that may bring
reduced operating costs and
increased aggregated benefits.
Rajiv Ranjan
Principal Systems Analyst, Patna
rajiv.ranjan@nic.in
46
Technology creates change and the
change creates problems also. It is
established that a large number of
solutions are lost or looses focus
during its execution. This necessitates
a holistic approach to managing
change involving people, process,
technology and knowledge to work
together and deliver growth and
performance.
Programme management differs from
project management. It is a layer
above the project management which
focuses on selecting the best group of
projects and defining them in terms of
their objectives and providing an
environment where projects can be
run successfully. It is a dynamic
process that utilizes the appropriate
resources of the organization in a
controlled and structured manner to
achieve some clearly defined
Flowchart of Programme Management
Informatics, January 2010
objectives. It is always conducted
within a defined set of constraints.
Programmes executions are usually
phased, with target end dates for the
initial phases which are well defined
and committed. Subsequent phases
are defined when initial phase
approaches completion to enable
initiation of new related projects. To
say programme management is
basically the utilization of project
management and its inherent
processes to manage a collection of
closely inter-depended projects in a
controlled and structured manner with
alignment to the strategic needs.
Programme Management emphasizes
on the coordination and prioritization
of resources across projects,
managing links between the projects
and overall costs and risks of the
programme. The execution of
January 2010 | informatics.nic.in
Programme Management have a number of factors e.g.
Governance, Infrastructure, Planning, Integration,
Management, alignment to higher level of vision, goal and
objectives including assurance of ensuring adherence to
standards etc. Many programmes are concerned with
delivering a capability to change. Only when that
capability is transferred to the line management/
department and utilized by the host organization/
department the benefits are perceivable. On this view,
benefits can only be delivered through utilization of a new
capability.
Considering a case study of a programme, the National e-
Governance Plan/Programme of Indian Government
seeks to lay the foundation and provide the impetus for
long term growth of e-Governance within the country
through setting up the core infrastructure and
implementation of a number of Mission Mode Projects
and integrated services to create a citizen-centric and
business-centric environment for the governance. The
objective is the rapid introduction of e-Governance in the
country.
Flowchart of Programme & Project Steering Team
Likewise, a number of departments are executing
programmes to benefit an organization that might include
increased income or profits, decreased costs or reduced
wastage, more satisfied customers or improved socio-
economic conditions of the people at large. National Land
Records Modernization (NLRMP) is also a programme.
Perspective
The ultimate goal of NLRMP is to usher in the conclusive
titling system with the guarantee to replace the current
presumptive title system in the country through creation of
a number of projects viz. computerization of property
registration, land records, digitization of maps, integration
etc. Similarly there is an ICT programme of Surface
Transport Department consisting of a number of related
projects with their deliverables. The objective of the
department is the formulation of National and State
Registers for Vehicle Registration and Driving License.
Var i o u s o t h e r d e p a r t m e n t s h a v e t h e i r o w n
programmes/projects that are outcome driven and align to
the vision, goal and objectives of the department. So, their
governance, infrastructure, integration and management
factors have a natural shift from project management.
Basically, when a Programme is formulated, inter-related
projects are also created keeping the strategic needs of an
organization. Such approach of creation of projects under
a programme is bound to achieve results with their
programme management in place. Looking from project
management perspective, in course of project execution,
key learning from projects usually triggers for
subsequently change in scope of a project that may lack
proper impact analysis and may not align to the strategic
needs. This not only loses the essence of project but it also
becomes difficult in turning the outputs to outcome. There
must be a process to change the pre-determined scope of a
project. Programmes often have to react to changes in
strategy and changes in the environment in which the
organization changes.
Keeping the evolving characteristics of e-Governance
initiatives, scope enhancement must be analyzed with
programmes in mind to deliver G2C, G2G, G2E and G2B
service. This may not come from a single project with its
limited scope. Hence, a work is divided into a collection of
'suites of projects' across an organization. And,
programme management or portfolio management can
help in better e-Governance implementation using a
holistic approach involving people, process, technology
and knowledge. Moreover emphasis on training,
innovation and learning are also needed for the change and
enhanced performance to bring economic growth and
prosperity to make us stronger.
47

Cryptography and Network Security
Atul Kahate has done an
excellent job of demystifying
Internet security concepts
through his book on
Cryptography and Network
Security. The author has made
understanding of cryptography
concepts an enjoyable experience
with lucid presentation and
diagrams. It is no surprise that
the first edition of this book
which was published in 2003,
went for 8 reprints besides an
international edition and a
Chinese translation too.
Title: Cryptography and Network
Security
Author: Atul Kahate
Publisher: Tata Mcgraw Hill
V Raman
Technical Director, Tamil Nadu
v.raman@nic.in
The enhancements in the second edition
are in terms of detailed coverage of
algorithms like AES, SHA-256 and its
variants and coverage on TLS besides
more explanation of mathematical base
wherever needed.
Chapter 1 introduces the basic concepts
of security, the need for security and the
principles of security namely
Confidentiality, Authentication,
Integrity, Non-Repudiation, Access
Control and Availability. Various types
of attacks like Virus, Worms, and Trojans
to specific attacks like Sniffing,
Spoofing, Phishing and Pharming (DNS
Spoofing) are discussed.
In Chapter 2, Cryptography Concepts are
introduced. Encryption and Decryption
process using Substitution techniques
like Caesar Cipher, Hill Cipher and
transposition techniques like Rail Fence
Technique, Columnar Transposition
technique are explained. Diffe-Hellman
key exchange algorithm is explained and
discussed at length.
Chapter 3 explains popular
Symmetric key Algorithms
highlighting two important
aspects of Algorithms namely
Type and Mode. The author
dwells deep into DES algorithm
and lucidly explains with diagrams
how the DES algorithm works. The
possibility of meet-in-the-middle
attack against DES and analysis of
various enhanced versions of DES are
done. Algorithms like International
Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA)
and Rivest Cipher (RC5), Blowfish and
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
are explained in detail.
In Chapter 4, the asymmetric key
algorithm RSA, Message Digest and
Digital Signature are explained. The
complex MD-5 algorithm is explained
step by step with excellent diagrams. The
Secure Hash Algorithm ( SHA-1) is
explained and compared with MD5
algorithm. Topics like Message
Book Review
Authentication Code (MAC), Hash-
based Message Authentication Code
(HMAC), Elliptic Curve Cryptography
(ECC) are also covered.
In Chapter 5 the concepts of Digital
Certificates, Certifying Authority (CA) ,
X509 Standards of Certificates, the
process of certificate generation, Root
Certification, Cross Certification,
Certificate Revocation Lists(CRLs),
Online Certificate Status Protocol
(OCSP), Certificate Types, Key
management , PKCS Standards, XML
Digital Certificate, Creating Digital
Certificate using Java key tool utility are
discussed in detail.
Chapter 6 deals with Internet Security
protocols like TCP/IP, SSL, TLS, TSP.
E-mail related security concepts like
PEM / PGP and S-MIME are also
discussed at length. The author also
throws light on Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP) security and in Chapter
7 talks about authentication of users
based on passwords, authentication
tokens, certificates and bio-metrics.
Chapter 8 deals with the practical issues
involved in cryptography using Java
Crypto API and .NET framework with
the aid of MS-CAPICOM components
including aspects of operating systems
security and database security.
In Chapter 9, the concept of Firewall
DMZ, IPSec, IKE Protocol, VPN and
Intrusion detection are analyzed and in
Chapter 10, case studies close to real life
situations are discussed including usage
of digital certificates in smart cards,
Single Sign-on, Secure interbank
transactions etc. A brief on DOS Attacks,
IP Spoofing, Cross Site Script
Vulnerability are also provided.
Each chapter is followed by summary,
key terms and concepts, multiple choice
questions and exercises. Number
systems, encoding standards and such
pre-requisites have been provided as
Appendix. The web supplements for the
readers are available at
http://www.mhhe.com/kahate/cns2e