Sunday, March 14, 2010

e-Governance Initiatives for transparency and accountability

Dear Colleagues

This message from my colleague Kris Dev in Chennai is a good introduction to LifeLine to Business (LL2B) and the global Transparency and Accountability Network represented in the USA by Tr-Ac-Net Inc. which also has developed the Community Analytics (CA) initiative.

Fwd: e-Governance Initiatives for transparency and accountability
From: Kris Dev
Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 1:53 AM
To: The Sunlight Foundation

Hi,

I visited Sunlight Foundation and Transparency Corps websites. Your mission "The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable"

It is rightly stated by Sunlight Foundation, "... to accomplish it, we've created a non-partisan, non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that focuses on the digitization of government data and the creation of tools and Web sites to make that data easily accessible for all citizens. It's a simple concept, but it's a very big job, and we are working with you to meet the challenge on every front.".

Transparency and Accountability Network (Tr-Ac-Net) is a loose knit global organization to create Community Centric Sustainable Development using the principles of Transparency and Accountability. We are working on this idea for the last 3-4 years globally.

Tr-Ac-Net is a global initiative and is co-founded by Peter Burgess from New York and myself. We have members from Asia, Africa, Middle East, Americas, etc.

I am from India; I have lived and worked in North / Latin America. I am presently an e-Gov Consultant based out of India.

I read in your contact page: "Have an idea for how to make Transparency Corps better? Have a task related to government transparency that the Transparency Corps community could solve? Want to learn more about Transparency Corps or have a brilliant thought to share? Send us a note here, or email tcorps@sunlightfoundation.com directly. Send us a note. We love new people and ideas!"

Is Transparency Corps only limited to USA or can its initiatives be extended to the world? If it can be extended to the world, we have an opportunity to work together, collaborating with TrAcNet. I find you have people in your team with Indian background.

I would like to introduce to you Life Line to Business (LL2B), a member of Tr-Ac-Net and an e-Governance Organization that has developed and implemented e-Administration e-Platform for e-Governance, a web based, platform neutral, paper less communication and work flow solution developed using open source tools (java, jboss, postgresql all running on Linux).

The tool has the provision for self customization by the user organization and can help to create the entire geographic branches, the functional departments, positions and officials for G2C / G2G / B2B / B2C communications.

It helps to integrate the working of the entire vertical and horizontal hierarchy of any community or organization and introduce transparency and accountability. It can also help to create unique identity for every citizen and help track the communications. Mobile phones can be integrated into the application for seamless communication. It can help to organize easy archival and retrieval of records.

e-Administration Tool was selected for the 'Innovations 2009' (Ideas in practice) Award for implementing 'e-Administration: e-platform for e-Governance' (certificate attached). The award is instituted by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay Alumni Association, Pune Chapter, India and The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE), Pune Chapter, India.
(http://www.iitbombay.org/chapters-and-events/pune , http://www.innovations-pune.com/ and http://www.innovations-pune.com/2009).

e-Administration initiatives are covered in many newspapers/magazines, as detailed below:

1. The Business Standard, Mumbai - 'With e-Governance, admn takes a virtual leap in TN
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/with-e-governance-admn-takesvirtual-leap-in-tn/186941/

2.The New Indian Express http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20040705124325&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0&aDate=7%2F6%2F2004
3. Case study presented in Digit Magazine November 2004 is as follows:

IT Cuts Red Tape - To many, e-Governance and a paperless office are Utopian ideas. Not for the Tamil Nadu government's IT Department, which uses software to create a transparent transaction process - "The biggest advantage of e-Administration is that it enables us to view, at any stage, the status of a pending file... This way work flow is simplified" - K. Appuswamy, General Manager, e-Governance, Tamil Nadu.
http://geotourism.changemakers.com/files/digit_nov04_digital%20business_%20case%20study.pdf

4. The Hindu, Metro Plus, Chennai on "Paperless or less paper?" on Saturday Jan 08, 2005 can be seen at http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/01/08/stories/2005010802070100.htm

5. The Hindu Business Line Monday, Sep 06, 2004, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
eWorld - E-Governance - Take those files away - Raja Simhan T.E. raja@thehindu.co.in
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2004/09/06/stories/2004090600020100.htm

6.The Budget 2004-2004 address to the State assembly of the Lt. Governor of Pondicherry::
http://pondicherry.nic.in and http://www.pon.nic.in/open/depts/finance/lgspeech2004.pdf

7. The "Journal of Orissa Information Technology Society" in the Case study on: "ICT and e-Gov" - Quarterly progress Report (April - June 2003) at http://www.oits.org/bulletin/bltn0412.pdf.

8. The customized e-Platform for the Industrial Guidance Bureau of the Government of Pondicherry, India, implemented with technical support from Life Line to Business (LL2B), Chennai, was evaluated for the Best IT Implementations of the year 2007 in the Government Sector by PC Quest, a Cyber media publication.

PC Quest June 2007 issue has rated 250 enterprise projects - 'The Ultimate Guide to IT Implementations in India' has evaluated the Best IT Implementations of the year 2007 in various sectors, with 'Analysis of Who is Deploying What in IT', 'Tech & Trends in IT Implementations' and identifying 'Top 10 Challenges in Deploying IT', by an independent jury'.
http://forums.pcquest.com/itimplementation/june_2007-30.html

In addition to the above e-Governance activities, our pro-poor grass-root initiative of unique Identification of poor for tracking benefits extended to poor, won the “Manthan-AIF Award 2006” for creating “India’s Best e-Content” in the category of “e-Inclusion and Livelihood” out of entries from 25 states in India for “Biometric Tracking of Payments under NREGA” in remote parts of rural India (http://www.manthanaward.org/section_full_story.asp?id=507). The award is given under the framework of the World Summit Awards.

Implemented unique biometric identification and tracking in rural India for e-Governance for poverty alleviation. The biometric initiative was covered in a number of newspapers and magazines. A few of them are as follows:

Villagers get digital identity - Biometric tracking gives a tamper proof identity to villagers http://www.indianexpress.com/news/aids-counsel-a-call-away/21904/2

Bihar shows smart card way to cleaner rural job scheme - http://www.indianexpress.com/story/33365.html

The 'BSC' of Identity - A Biometric Smart Card Device can be a fool-proof ID for citizens, says this ICT Consultant - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2007/03/19/stories/200703190

ID Cards get smarter - http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=10&...

4Ps Business and Marketing Magazine - A Plan Media Publication, New Delhi, India - Special Feature - column citizenry - A prescription to end corruption - Unique identification of every citizen will help kill the corruption malaise in developing economies http://www.4psbusinessandmarketing.com/17072008/storyd.asp?sid=2112&page....

'Biometric Smart Card' – article published in: 'Information Technology in Developing Countries' newsletter of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 9.4 titled Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries. Previously supported by agencies like COMNET-IT, Malta and IDRC, Canada, the newsletter is now published on the web by the Centre for Electronic Governance, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

The newsletter carries articles on IT applications in developing countries which have created a socio-economic impact, evaluation of national policies on IT and telecommunications sectors, and paradigms to understand the impact of IT on development. Relevant conferences announcements, and reviews of conferences and books are also carried in the newsletter. The readership mainly consists of IT professionals, academics and administrators concerned with IT policy. The newsletter has to its credit a legacy of over 10 years of print publication, reaching 750 individual subscribers and 45 libraries in 40 countries. Past issues can be accessed through the WG 9.4 homepage.
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/oct2008/oct2008.htm and http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/oct2008/kris-dev.htm.

Smart Voter-IDs needed - http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/geetanjali-krishna-smart-vot...

I thought the above may be of interest to Transparency Corps / Sunlight Foundation.

I am marking a copy to Peter Burgess. We await to hear from you,

Best,
--
Gopalakrishnan (Kris) Devanathan,
President & CEO,
Life Line to Business / Life Line to Citizen,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
email: krisdev@gmail.com
URL: http://ll2b.blogspot.com
Ph: + 91 98 408 52132 / 1 (206) 274 1635

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. … Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"A quick evaluation of the progress we have achieved in the last 20 years shows that in the area of poverty alleviation, we have not done enough. History will judge us harshly, unless we seize the opportunity to do more." - Archbishop Njongo Ndungane, President and Founder, African Monitor.

Practice is better than precept.
While much of the work on transparency for the past 15 years or so has been publicity about the problem ... the work of Tr-Ac-Net, LL2B and Community Analytics (CA) has been to develop and deploys ways of making transparency the norm for global socio-economics.

Peter Burgess

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