The new servant leader

Servant-leadership is back in fashion. While Prime MinisterNarendra Modi doesn’t let go of any opportunity of projecting himself as a “Prime Sevak,” even corporate India isn’t far behind. On his first day as Infosys chief executive in August last year, Vishal Sikka quoted Rabindranath Tagore in describing himself as a servant leader and said when communication and computing technology have flattened the world and made everything accessible, to assume that some leader has more ability to solve some problem than others is nonsense.

But no one perhaps exemplifies this model of leadership more than Arvind Kejriwal. When he insists that the landslide election victory is not about him or his party but about the ordinary Delhiites, his frustrations and aspirations, Kejriwal is essentially echoing what Lao-Tzu, philosopher, wrote about servant leadership in the fifth-century BC: “The highest type of ruler is one whose followers say after the task has been accomplished, ‘We ourselves have achieved it!’” That’s precisely what the volunteers and followers of Aam Admi Party (AAP) are saying.

Servant leadership is a style that nurtures participatory leadership and encourages the talent of followers and hence is in direct contrast to the centralised, command-and-control model that most organisations follow.

In modern times, the term servant leadership is attributed to an essay written by Robert Greenleaf in 1970. In the essay titled, "The Servant as Leader", Greenleaf, who had worked in AT&T before setting up a centre for servant leadership, said such a leadership style encourages a decentralised structure that focuses on employee empowerment and encourages innovation. This means having upper management share key decision-making powers with employees who work directly with customers and hence are better aware of what is needed to serve clients. As Kejriwal has shown, servant leaders also rely on persuasion, rather than positional authority in making decisions. 

There are several other leadership insights that the business world can draw from Kejriwal. It’s the way he fought back after his 49-day chief ministership and subsequent near-decimation in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.  He learnt quickly from the mistakes, apologised in public (the main reason why people who were angry with him earlier were still willing to give him another chance) and quickly regrouped to fight another battle. The result: AAP was much better equipped organisationally this time through a distributed leadership model. 

But like all successful business leaders, Kejriwal made sure he remained focused, resilient and communicative with his core audience, as a result of which everyone knows why AAP was created. His single-minded approach to fighting corruption ensured that no business school can teach the importance of 'focus’ as well as Kejriwal.

Articulation of your mission to your team and customers is another important facet of leadership. And this is where Kejriwal and team performed brilliantly through one-to-one, direct communication through 'mohalla sabhas’ with clear ideas, all of which was force multiplied by social media usage. This is what is known in management parlance as the blue ocean strategy -- create new demand in an uncontested market space rather than compete head-to-head with your competitors. 

Kejriwal may not leave you spellbound with his carefully crafted speeches or a strong persona, but he surely knows how to connect with the hearts of his audience – the 60% of Delhi’s 17 million population – through disruptive means of communication which did not require money power.  

And he surely knows how to laugh at his own expense – a trait which endeared him to many. Which political leader in India would be willing to appear in a spoof show on Youtube where the host asks him whether he would like to have coffee or cough syrup? All this was part of a carefully cultivated smart marketing of a leader who is “normal”, resembling your friendly neighbourhood ordinary educated middle class man firmly aligned to values like justice, equality, truth and transparency. If this is not smart marketing, what is?

As he gets sworn in tomorrow, the only concern Delhi’s new Chief Minister should have is how to scale up the model. As is the case with almost every political party, AAP is also fundamentally a one-man band. He has to remove that crucial similarity with the traditional leadership model. The faster, the better.

Priorities for Budget 2015-16

The importance of Union Budgets for overall economic policyand outcomes is certainly high, but nowhere near the stratospheric levels to which the annual media hoopla typically sends it. This Budget is, of course, more important than usual as it is anticipated by many as the "first real Budget" of the new Narendra Modi government, the July 2014 Budget having been presented within six weeks of assuming office and having been deemed as something of a damp squib. In assessing any Budget, I generally find it useful to focus on four distinct dimensions: the overall fiscal stance; the tax policies; the expenditure policies; and the vision-cum-reform elements. But before turning to priorities in each of these dimensions, let's take summary stock of the economic context for this Budget.

Economic context
Read our full coverage on Union Budget

As I observed in my column last month ("Looking back (2014) and forth (2015)", January 8, 2015), the outlook for the world economy remains subdued, despite the steep drop in prices of oil and other commodities. The Chinese juggernaut is expected to slow further to below seven per cent growth, Japan is unlikely to boom, and the stagnant European economy is burdened by legacy problems and the dark shadow of a "Grexit" from the euro zone. Only the United States is recovering steadily, powered by years of expansionary fiscal and monetary policies, flexible and responsive markets, and the revolution in shale oil and gas. Global growth in 2015 is likely to be a modest 2.5 per cent, with world trade expanding at an anaemic two to four per cent. Unpleasant surprises may lurk from "Grexit", rebounding oil prices or a rise in US policy interest rates. So the global economy may not be a force-multiplier for India's development in the year ahead.

Until end-January 2015, the well-accepted narrative for the Indian economy was clear: an economy slowly recovering from over two years of a serious growth slowdown, six years of double-digitinflation and a mini balance of payments crisis in 2013-14, with industry stagnant, infrastructure in disarray, stubborn fiscal deficits, weak government banks and stagnating employment. The re-based and revised national income estimates published on January 30, 2015, have created considerable confusion and debate by painting a more optimistic picture of growth in gross domestic product (GDP), industry and trade in 2013-14 than can be squared with the ground realities of an external finance crisis, high interest rates, slowing bank credit and tax revenues, and sluggish corporate sales and earnings. Whatever the outcome of this debate, the 2015-16 Budget has to strive for faster growth of national output and employment, while nurturing lower inflation and sustainable external balance.

Overall fiscal stance

Although the finance ministry's mid-year review in December 2014 favoured a boost in public investment to spur growth, even at the expense of breaching the announced fiscal consolidation path, this may be unwise in the context of a weak and uncertain global economic environment. There is certainly a good case for raising public investment in roads, railways and ports, but this has to be accommodated within a prudent fiscal envelope. Given the recent, publicly reported commitments by the prime minister and the finance minister to peg the 2014-15 fiscal deficit at the budgeted level of 4.1 per cent of GDP, and bring it down to three per cent by 2016-17, the deficit level for 2015-16 has to be calibrated around 3.5-3.7 per cent of GDP. This modest reduction in the deficit (net government borrowing) will also support a sustained, growth-supportive reduction in nominal and real interest rates that has recently begun.

Tax policies

It is important to recall that the Centre's gross tax receipts as a percentage of GDP had risen steadily from eight per cent in 2001-02 to 12 per cent in 2007-08 (a major contributor to the improvement in public savings in this period), before declining thereafter. In 2014-15, it is expected to be below 10 per cent. In order to accommodate higher public investment and the (rumoured) increase in tax devolution to states recommended by the 14th Finance Commission, and ensure a modest reduction in the fiscal deficit, it is imperative to raise the gross tax revenues-to-GDP ratio significantly in 2015-16. Moreover, this projected increase has to be based on credible measures, not on absurdly optimistic revenue projections, as in 2013-14 and 2014-15, which then lead to hugely disruptive expenditure cuts. The six best ways of enhancing tax revenues in a credible and economically sensible way are:

• Increase the general rate of Cenvat from 12 per cent to 13 or 14 per cent; the latter was the rate before the "global financial crisis";
   
• A corresponding increase in the current rate of services tax from 12 per cent to 13 or 14 per cent;
   
• Drastically prune the myriad end-use, concessional rates and special exemptions currently embedded in both the excise and customs duty structures. This will yield considerable revenue, reduce economic distortions and special favours, and pave the way to ushering in the goods and services tax (GST) in a year or two;
   
• Restoration of the customs duty on crude oil to five per cent;
   
• Increase special excises on luxury consumption goods, such as cars and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) with higher (above 1,600cc?) engine size, refrigerators above a threshold capacity, air-conditioners above a designated capacity, televisions above 36-inch screen size and so forth. By confining such special excises (over and above the general Cenvat rate) to final consumption products, distortive consequences for the product chain will be avoided;
   
• Increase the cess on petrol and diesel, earmarked for roads by one per cent or so;

Also, avoid hare-brained proposals, such as to tax financial transactions and "fringe benefits". They have been tried before and failed.

Expenditures

On the expenditure side, in line with the recommendations of the Expenditure Commission's preliminary report (as indicated in the media) and the Shanta Kumar High Level Committee Report on the Food Corporation of India, the Budget should announce road maps for direct cash transfer approaches in respect of existing major subsidies for kerosene, foodgrain and fertilisers, as has already been initiated for cooking gas cylinders. This will greatly enhance targeting of subsidies (currently, there are huge leakages and corruption), while helping to contain their size.

Furthermore, with the funds from additional taxation and subsidy containment, the Budget should ensure significantly higher expenditures for roads, ports, electricity transmission, public health and defence.

Reforms

Road maps for shifting major central subsidies to direct cash transfer approaches will constitute major reforms for the relevant sectors of petroleum, food and fertilisers. So will rapid progress on the implementation of the national GST. In addition, it would be very good if the Budget announced:

• A road map for reform/restructuring and recapitalisation of public sector banks, which have huge value locked in their extensive networks but suffer from poor performance;
   
• A plan for reviving a credible approach to private-public partnerships (PPPs), which have run into all sorts of trouble in recent years;
   
• A road map on reform of labour laws, with the objective of encouraging much greater employment of India's growing population of young job-seekers.

These are my Budget priorities and hopes. In a couple of weeks, it will be interesting to see to what extent, if any, these hopes are realised.

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Global Environment Facility (GEF) agrees to take up four pilot projects on sustainable urban practices

CEO of GEF Dr.Naoko Ishii holds talks with Shri Venkaiah Naidu on smart cities and other initiatives

Global Environment Facility (GEF) that supports UN objectives of protecting environment and addressing climate change concerns, has agreed to undertake pilot projects in four Indian cities for promoting ‘green urban practices’. An understanding in this regard was reached during a meeting between the visiting CEO and Chairperson of GEF Dr.Naoko Ishii with Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu here today. Dr.Naoko Ishii said that the purpose of her current visit to India was to learn more about the central government’s initiatives in urban sector like building 100 Smart Cities and infrastructure development in 500 cities and explore if GEF could partner in promoting sustainable urban management practices. Shri Venkaiah Naidu gave an account of different schemes and objectives which include enabling inclusive and sustainable urban development. After detailed discussion on urban development challenges and the need to promote environmentally sustainable strategies, Shri Naidu suggested that GEF should take up pilot projects for demonstrating comprehensive and sustainable urban practices encompassing conservation and efficient energy use, reducing carbon emissions for addressing climate change concerns. The four cities for implementing pilot projects will soon be identified through consultations between GEF and Ministry of Urban Development. GEF is a financial mechanism to support countries in efforts to achieve the goals of United Nations Conventions covering climate change, biodiversity, Ozone layer depletion, land degradation etc. GEF is also working on an Integrated Program on Sustainable Cities to develop conceptual models on integrated urban design, planning and management for resilient and sustainable development.

Civil disservice

With the removal of the foreign and home secretaries, much before their two-year tenures had expired, the civil services have come into sharp focus. Yet this government had made some significant changes earlier too. The finance and revenue secretaries as well as the secretary of the financial services department were shifted out, according to some, quite suddenly. This perception of sudden movement in the higher levels of the civil service has brought with it the suspicion that there must be a sinister reason for the changes. But, while we may legitimately feel concerned by such removals, we rarely scrutinise the process of appointments for these important posts and seldom analyse the rationale for a particular person being selected for a specific job.

When the former foreign and home secretaries were appointed, nobody had questioned whether they were the best available officers. It is common sense to assume that the Union home secretary would be an officer who had been home secretary in a large state or had served for a long time at the ministry of home affairs. Similarly, the foreign secretary should have held a variety of diplomatic posts and worked in key policymaking desks at the ministry of external affairs. We take it for granted that every appointed officer deserves the post. We have, as a society, paid little attention to our civil service except to revile or criticise it. But we need to look at the ways in which civil servants are recruited, trained, deployed and disciplined if we want good service from them.

The appointment, transfer and removal of civil servants is the prerogative of the government. There are elaborate procedures, constitutionally mandated, for dismissal or termination from service. The former foreign and home secretaries were not dismissed; their terms of appointment were merely curtailed. Incidentally, both were past the retirement age of 60 and earned their maximum retirement benefits. If the government felt the performance of the incumbents fell short of expectations, it had the right to change the officers. After all, the same government had retained them for all these months, even though they had been appointed earlier. While we have a right to know why they were removed, it may not be in the interests of the individual officers and their right to privacy, or even in the larger public interest, to reveal these reasons. This moment, however, gives us an opportunity to examinhe mechanisms for managing the higher civil services and making appointments to senior posts in the Central government.

The Centre has a mechanism called the Central staffing scheme, which lays down the broad guidelines for appointing officers to senior civil posts. Through a rather long-drawn but

mostly mechanical exercise, IAS and other officers are shortlisted every year. The Centre chooses from this pool when appointing officers to vacant posts. Under the above scheme, only officers at the joint secretary level and below get a fixed tenure of service, ranging from three to seven years. There is no fixed tenure for additional secretaries and most of the secretaries. Most often, the secretaries get a tenure of two to three years, since most reach 60 by then and are due to retire. With more and more officers joining the service late, the average term of secretaries in the Central government is not more than two years these days. However, irrespective of the date of retirement, a term of two years is fixed for the cabinet secretary, the secretaries of home, defence and foreign affairs, as well as some secretary-level heads of security and intelligence for bodies like the R&AW, IB and CBI. The UPA government amended the relevant rules and extended the cabinet secretary’s term to go up to four years. It has always been a mystery why these posts have been singled out for a fixed term, that too irrespective of the date of retirement. Why should the home secretary get a fixed term and not the finance or health secretary, or the secretary of environment and forests? Why is the cabinet secretary to work for four years? And why is the director of the CBI or IB considered more deserving of a fixed two-year term than the DG of the BSF or CRPF? The fact of the matter is that the current system is very arbitrary, its rules and procedures framed to benefit individual officers rather than to serve any real public interest.

The entire process of shortlisting eligible officers, popularly known as empanelment, is seriously flawed, based as it is only on annual performance appraisal reports and no other qualitative criteria. With nearly every officer credited with outstanding ratings, almost all are found fit to be secretary, at least among the IAS officers. If not, they have only to go back to their respective states to pick up promotions. It is not very different with IPS officers or those from the foreign services. Thus, senior civil servants are not only guaranteed permanence in their jobs, but also assured promotion to the highest possible level in their respective services. Where else in the world is it expected that every recruit to a public office will continue to display uniform excellence across a career spanning nearly 35 years and be eligible to rise to the top? We are now so used to this trend that a sudden removal of a secretary, even without affecting his or her post-retirement benefits, leaves us surprised. It is as if the officers have a right to remain at their posts forever.

In normal times, civil servants are dismissed as inconsequential “babus” and forgotten, or at best taken for granted. So it is not inappropriate to reiterate the civil service’s place in the body politic. It forms the bulk of what is known as the executive, one arm of the constitutional triad. The Constitution of India creates it and legitimises it with a degree of permanence only equalled by the judiciary. The judiciary, in its autonomy and standing, is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The civil services, as an integral part of the executive, may also be considered a component of the same basic structure. Rightly so, since it is the civil service that has always run the government, whatever its form. Having given so much permanence and power to civil servants, especially the senior ones, the country must expect much more from them. It must also invest much more in preparing them to deliver the best. Several Administrative Reforms Commissions later, nothing has changed in the way we manage higher appointments. It is time the government took up this limited administrative reform, framed clear rules and procedures to streamline these appointments, for the good of the civil servants but also to get the best out of them for the greater public good.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) - Skill Development for Inclusive Growth

According to Census 2011, India has 55 million potential workers between the ages of 15 and 35 years in rural areas. At the same time, the world is expected to face a shortage of 57 million workers by 2020. This presents a historic opportunity for India to transform its demographic surplus into a demographic dividend. The Ministry of Rural Development implements DDU-GKY to drive this national agenda for inclusive growth, by developing skills and productive capacity of the rural youth from poor families.

There are several challenges preventing India’s rural poor from competing in the modern market, such as the lack of formal education and marketable skills. DDU-GKY bridges this gap by funding training projects benchmarked to global standards, with an emphasis on placement, retention, career progression and foreign placement.

Features of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana

·         Enable Poor and Marginalized to Access Benefits

Demand led skill training at no cost to the rural poor

·         Inclusive Program Design

Mandatory coverage of socially disadvantaged groups (SC/ST 50%; Minority 15%; Women 33%)

·         Shifting Emphasis from Training to Career Progression

Pioneers in providing incentives for job retention, career progression and foreign placements

·         Greater Support for Placed Candidates

Post-placement support, migration support and alumni network

·         Proactive Approach to Build Placement Partnerships

Guaranteed Placement for at least 75% trained candidates

·         Enhancing the Capacity of Implementation Partners

Nurturing new training service providers and developing their skills

·         Regional Focus

Greater emphasis on projects for poor rural youth in Jammu and Kashmir (HIMAYAT),

the North-East region and 27 Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) districts (ROSHINI)

·         Standards-led Delivery

All program activities are subject to Standard Operating Procedures that are not open to interpretation by local inspectors. All inspections are supported by geo-tagged, time stamped videos/photographs

Implementation Model

DDU-GKY follows a 3-tier implementation model.  The DDU-GKY National Unit at MoRD functions as the policy-making, technical support and facilitation agency.  The DDU-GKY State Missions provide implementation support; and the Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs) implement the programme through skilling and placement projects.

Project Funding Support

DDU-GKY provides funding support for placement linked skilling projects that address the market demand with funding support ranging from Rs. 25,696 to over Rs. 1 lakh per person, depending on the duration of the project and whether the project is residential or non-residential.  DDU-GKY funds projects with training duration from 576 hours (3 months) to 2304 hours (12 months).

Funding components include support for training costs, boarding and lodging (residential programmes), transportation costs, post-placement support costs, career progression and retention support costs.

 In funding projects, priority is given to PIAs offering:

•     Foreign Placement

•  Captive Employment: Those PIAs or organizations that take up skill training to meet internal ongoing HR needs

• Industry Internships: Support for internships with co-funding from industry

•  Champion Employers:  PIAs who can assure skill training and placement for a minimum of 10,000 DDU-GKY trainees in a span of 2 years  

•  Educational Institution of High Repute: Institutes with a minimum National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grading of 3.5 or Community Colleges with University Grants Commission (UGC)/ All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) funding   willing to take up DDU-GKY projects

Training Requirements

DDU-GKY funds a variety of skill training  programs  covering over 250 trades  across a range of sectors  such as Retail, Hospitality , Health, Construction, Automotive, Leather, Electrical, Plumbing, Gems and Jewelry, to name a few.  The only mandate is that skill training should be demand based and lead to placement of at least 75% of the trainees.

The trade specific skills are required to follow the curriculum and norms prescribed by specified national agencies: the National Council for Vocational Training and Sector Skills Councils.

In addition to the trade specific skills, training must be provided in employability and soft skills, functional English and functional Informational technology literacy so that the training can build cross cutting essential skills.

Training Quality Assurance

Through the National Policy on Skill Development, 2009, India recognized the need for the development of a national qualification framework that would transcend both general education and vocational education and training.  Accordingly, GOI has notified the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) in order to develop nationally standardized, and internationally comparable qualification mechanism for skill training programs which can also provide for interoperability with the mainstream education system.

In line with NSQF, DDU-GKY mandates independent third party assessment and certification by assessment bodies empanelled by the NCVT or SSCs.

Scale and Impact

DDU-GKY is applicable to the entire country.  The scheme is being implemented currently in 33States/UTs across 610 districts partnering currently with over 202 PIAs covering more than 250 trades across 50+ sectors.  So far, from the year 2004-05 till 30th November 2014, a total of 10.94 lakh candidates have been trained and a total of 8.51 lakh candidates have been given placement

Amartya Sen awarded inaugural John Maynard Keynes Prize 2015

Eminent Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has been awarded the inaugural Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize 2015.

He was chosen for this award for his ground-breaking work that has profound impact on the formation of development policy worldwide and outstanding contribution to society.

Amartya Sen will receive £7,500 to commission a work of art. He will also give the annual Charleston-EFG Keynes Lecture on the topic The Economic Consequences of Austerity at the Charleston Festival on 23 May 2015.

About Amartya Sen

• Amartya Sen was born on 3 November 1933 in Manikganj district in British India (Now in Bangladesh).
• He is regarded as one of the foremost thinkers in the field of famine, poverty, social choice and welfare economics.
• He was teacher and a research scholar in the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, West Bengal.. Currently, he is a Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University.
• His has authored more than 100 books which have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Awards: He has won many prestigious awards. Few of them are

• Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his work in welfare economics.
• Bharat Ratna- India’s highest Civilian Award in 1999.
• National Humanities Medal in 2012.

About Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize

It is an international award, instituted in the memory and spirit of British Economist John Maynard Keynes’ work, life and legacy.

The aim of this prize is to honour individuals from around the world who continue to embody Keynes’ extraordinary attributes.

Digital India

Government of India has approved the ‘Digital India’ programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple Government Ministries and Departments. It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them can be implemented as part of a larger goal. Each individual element stands on its own, but is also part of the entire Government. Digital India is implemented by the entire Government and being coordinated by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY).

The vision of Digital India is centred on three key areas, viz., (i) Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen (ii) Governance and Services on Demand and (iii) Digital Empowerment of Citizens.  Digital India aims to provide the much needed thrust to the following nine pillars of growth areas as summarised below:

Broadband Highways

·  This covers three sub components, namely Broadband for All Rural, Broadband for All Urban and National Information Infrastructure.

·  Under Broadband for All Rural, 250 thousand village Panchayats would be covered by December, 2016. DoT will be the nodal Department and the project cost is estimated to be approximately Rs. 32,000 Cr.

·  Under Broadband for All Urban, Virtual Network Operators would be leveraged for service delivery and communication infrastructure in new urban development and buildings would be mandated.

·  National Information Infrastructure would integrate the networks like SWAN, NKN and NOFN along with cloud enabled National and State Data Centres. It will also have provision for horizontal connectivity to 100, 50, 20 and 5 government offices/ service outlets at state, district, block and panchayat levels respectively. DeitY will be the nodal department and the project cost is estimated to be around Rs 15,686 Cr for implementation in 2 years and maintenance & support for 5 years.

Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity

·  The initiative is to focus on network penetration and fill the gaps in connectivity in the country.

·  All together 42,300 uncovered villages will be covered for providing universal mobile connectivity in the country.

·  DoT will be the nodal department and project cost will be around Rs 16,000 Cr during FY 2014-18.

Public Internet Access Programme

·  The two sub components of Public Internet Access Programme are Common Service Centres and Post Offices as multi-service centres.

·  Common Service Centres would be strengthened and its number would be increased from approximately 135,000 operational at present to 250,000 i.e. one CSC in each Gram Panchayat. CSCs would be made viable, multi-functional end-points for delivery of government and business services. DeitY would be the nodal department to implement the scheme.

·  A total of 150,000 Post Offices are proposed to be converted into multi service centres. Department of Posts would be the nodal department to implement this scheme.

e-Governance – Reforming Government through Technology

·  Government Business Process Re-engineering using IT to improve transactions is the most critical for transformation across government and therefore needs to be implemented by all ministries/ departments.

·   The guiding principles for reforming government through technology are:

a.    Form simplification and field reduction – Forms should be made simple and user friendly and only minimum and necessary information should be collected.

b.    Online applications, tracking of their status and interface between departments should be provided.

c.     Use of online repositories e.g. school certificates, voter ID cards, etc. should be mandated so that citizens are not required to submit these documents in physical form.

d.    Integration of services and platforms, e.g. UIDAI, Payment Gateway, Mobile Platform, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) etc. should be mandated to facilitate integrated and interoperable service delivery to citizens and businesses.

·       Electronic Databases – all databases and information should be electronic and not manual.

·       Workflow Automation Inside Government – The workflow inside government departments and agencies should be automated to enable efficient government processes and also to allow visibility of these processes to the citizens.

·       Public Grievance Redressal - IT should be used to automate, respond and analyze data to identify and resolve persistent problems. These would be largely process improvements.

e-Kranti (NeGP 2.0) – Electronic delivery of services

·  There are 31 Mission Mode Projects under different stages of e-governance project lifecycle. Further, 10 new MMPs have been added to e-Kranti by the Apex Committee on National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) headed by the Cabinet Secretary in its meeting held on 18th March 2014.

·  Technology for Education – e-Education

All Schools will be connected with broadband.  Free wifi will be provided in all secondary and higher secondary schools (coverage would be around 250,000 schools). A programme on digital literacy would be taken up at the national level. MOOCs –Massive Online Open Courses shall be developed and leveraged for e-Education.

·  Technology for Health – e-Healthcare

E-Healthcare would cover online medical consultation, online medical records, online medicine supply, pan-India exchange for patient information. Pilots shall be undertaken in 2015 and full coverage would be provided in 3 years.

·  Technology for Farmers

This would facilitate farmers to get real time price information, online ordering of inputs and online cash, loan and relief payment with mobile banking.

a.  Technology for Security

Mobile based emergency services and disaster related services would be provided to citizens on real time basis so as to take precautionary measures well in time and minimize loss of lives and properties.

b. Technology for Financial Inclusion

Financial Inclusion shall be strengthened using Mobile Banking, Micro-ATM program and CSCs/ Post Offices.

c.  Technology for Justice

Interoperable Criminal Justice System shall be strengthened by leveraging e-Courts, e-Police, e-Jails and e-Prosecution.

d. Technology for Planning

National GIS Mission Mode Project would be implemented to facilitate GIS based decision making for project planning, conceptualization, design and development. 

e. Technology for Cyber Security

National Cyber Security Co-ordination Center would be set up to ensure safe and secure cyber-space within the country.

Information for All

·  Open Data platform and online hosting of information & documents would facilitate open and easy access to information for citizens.

·  Government shall pro-actively engage through social media and web based platforms to inform citizens. MyGov.in has already been launched as a medium to exchange ideas/ suggestions with Government. It will facilitate 2-waycommunication between citizens and government.

·  Online messaging to citizens on special occasions/programs would be facilitated through emails and SMSes.

·  The above would largely utilise existing infrastructure and would need limited additional resources.

Electronics Manufacturing – Target NET ZERO Imports

·  Target NET ZERO Imports is a striking demonstration of intent.

·  This ambitious goal requires coordinated action on many fronts

a.    Taxation, incentives

b.    Economies of scale, eliminate cost disadvantages

c.     Focus areas – Big Ticket Items

FABS, Fab-less design, Set top boxes, VSATs, Mobiles, Consumer & Medical Electronics, Smart Energy meters, Smart cards, micro-ATMs

d.    Incubators, clusters

e.    Skill development

f.  Government procurement

·  There are many ongoing programs which will be fine-tuned.

·  Existing structures are inadequate to handle this goal and need strengthening.

IT for Jobs

·  1 Cr students from smaller towns & villages will be trained for IT sector jobs over     5 years. DeitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

·  BPOs would be set up in every north-eastern state to facilitate ICT enabled growth in these states. DeitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

·  3 lakh service delivery agents would be trained as part of skill development to run viable businesses delivering IT services. DeitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

·  5 lakh rural workforce would be trained by the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to cater to their own needs. Department of Telecom (DoT) would be the nodal department for this scheme.

Early Harvest Programmes

·  IT Platform for Messages

A Mass Messaging Application has been developed by DeitY that will cover elected representatives and all Government employees. 1.36 Cr mobiles and 22 Lakh emails are part of the database.

·   Government Greetings to be e-Greetings

Basket of e-Greetings templates have been made available. Crowd sourcing of          e-Greetings through MyGov platform has been ensured. E-Greetings portal has been made live on 14th  August 2014. 

·   Biometric attendance

It will cover all Central Govt. Offices in Delhi and is already operational in DeitY and has been initiated in the Department of Urban Development. On-boarding has also started in other departments.

·  Wi-Fi in All Universities

All universities on the National Knowledge Network (NKN) shall be covered under this scheme. Ministry of HRD is the nodal ministry for implementing this scheme.

·  Secure Email within Government

a.    Email would be the primary mode of communication.

b.    Phase-I upgradation for 10 lakh employees has been completed. In Phase II, infrastructure would be further upgraded to cover 50 lakh employees by March 2015 at a cost of Rs 98 Cr. DeitY is the nodal department for this scheme.

·  Standardize Government Email Design

Standardised templates for Government email are under preparation and would be ready by October 2014. This would be implemented by DeitY.

·  Public Wi-fi hotspots

Cities with population of over 1 million and tourist centres would be provided with public wi-fi hotspots to promote digital cities. The scheme would be implemented by DoT and MoUD.

·  School Books to be eBooks

All books shall be converted into eBooks. Min. of HRD/ DeitY would be the nodal agencies for this scheme.

·  SMS based weather information, disaster alerts

SMS based weather information and disaster alerts would be provided. DeitY’s Mobile Seva Platform is already ready and available for this purpose. MoES (IMD) / MHA (NDMA) would be the nodal organizations for implementing this scheme.

·  National Portal for Lost & Found children

a.         This would facilitate real time information gathering and sharing on the lost and found children and would go a long way to check crime and improve timely response.

b.    DeitY/ DoWCD would be the nodal departments for this project.

       Some of the aforementioned projects are under various stages of implementation and may require some transformational process reengineering, refinements and adjustment of scoping and implementation strategy to achieve the desired service level objectives by the concerned line Ministries/Departments at the Central, State and Local Government levels.