Right to Information
IT Task Force Recommendations, that can make the GIS really HAPPEN in the country
Advice on computer and communications security, systems auditing, contingency planning and disaster recovery Advice on out-sourcing, market testing and PFI.As it will be difficult to train a whole lot of Government servants in IT quickly, the private sector computer companies must be called upon to provide equipment as well as services. This could be optionally on a lease basis so that the Government is not stuck with the old legacy systems. There will also be no delay in disposal and the problem of disposal of old equipment will not arise. Government can thus ensure that it always has the latest IT system.
Participation in International projects
There are a number of international projects relating to electronic government that are currently being piloted or implemented. Examples of international organisations include the International Council for the use of IT in Government Administration (ICA), the Commonwealth Network of IT for Development (COMNET-IT), the OECD, the Asia Pacific Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC). It would be useful for India to participate in international projects so as to both learn from experiences of others, as also contribute to the global experience in planning and implementing Information Technology projects.
It is suggested that the Government of India should consider participation in the Government on-line (GOL) Projectoriginally launched in 1995 by ministers from the G7 countries. The GOL permits participation by non GF7 countries. Countries like Sweden, Australia, Hungary, Israel, Malta, Switzerland, South Africa, Brazil, Czech Republic, Egypt, and Korea are non-G7 members of the project. The city of Rome became the first municipal level government to participate directly in the project. Some of the sub-projects being taken up under the Governemtn on-line project include:
- Directory Services led by Canada
- Reuse of Government information within national boundaries led by the UK
- Developing ‘single window’ government led by the US
- Improving customer service with kiosk technology led by the US
- Permits and licenceses led by Japan
- Delivery of government information electronically led by the UK
- Locating government information electronically led by UK
- Charging for services led by Israel
- On-line formal transactions led by the UK
- Compendium of government on line activities and interests led by Canada and
- On line support for democracy led by Sweden
Telecommuting
is becoming increasingly popular in the West. In Los Angeles an 18-month study of 400 telecommuters concluded that, for each individual, employers saved $8,500 annually, 4000 kilowatts in energy, and 30 percent in office and parking space. Moreover the general public benefited from lower pollution levels, less traffic congestion, lower energy consumption. A systematic exercise should be carried out by government departments for identifying those tasks that can be effectively done through telecommuting. An option can then be given to employees to accomplish their work through telecommuting. The introduction of workflow concepts in government will begin to make telecommuniting viable for a large number of employees.
Standardization
Since the future will witness large-scale integration of a wide range of applications both within and outside government, the country needs to initiate standardisation of basic data. It is necessary to recognise the strategic nature of Information Technology in Government and to ensure consistency, connectivity and inter-operability. Most of the time, data is captured in an adhoc manner. A data item like Citizen name and address is captured by a host of government agencies in different ways.
Such non-standardisation makes it difficult to integrate and coordinate usage of dara by different agencies, though the same data item may be required for multiple government services like vehicle registration, tax payer identification, state economic assistance and voter registration. Standards can help create predictable architecture ensuring the manageability, portability and interoperability of systems.