A Successful E-Gov Project since 15 last Years............backbone of other E-Gov projects

In the series of SWAGAT, IWDMS and many other E-gov projects, writing on SICN project here. 

SICN: Sachivalya Integrated Communication Network, Gandhinagar-Gujarat, INDIA
SICN is a network owned by Government of Gujarat for their Voice, Data & Video Communication needs in 2001 (just like Gujarat Government’s private BSNL). This is Asia’s biggest network of Govt. of its kind. This Network is spread in the periphery of 12 kms. Connecting almost all the Govt. Boards and Corporations offices in capital of Gujarat Gandhinagar. This project has benefited Government almost Rs. 60-70 Crore per year till date. Implementation cost was 9-10 Crore in year 2000. While maintenance cost is around 65Lakh rupee per year.

If you are interested in technical and implementation detail of project then you can find information here: http://hims30482.blogspot.com/2009/09/articles-about-sicn-project-officially.html

If you interested in published articles about this project officially and from media, please go through here: http://hims30482.blogspot.com/2009/09/technical-and-implementation-detail-of.html

First of all, little information is required to understand what is this project, why it is required. Information needed is like; what is Government, how it works and standards followed till date. So that we can go ahead comfortably and you can compare better;

· There are total 26 Govt departments in Government of Gujarat and their headquarters are located at Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar. There is over 20-25 Thousand employees work in various Govt offices in Gandhinagar.
· These departments further divided in to Commissionerate offices, Superintendent Offices, Collector offices, Section offices etc which are located in Gandhinagar but not in Sachivalaya. It is spread all over Gandhinagar, in different sectors etc.
· Now each department has some Corporation, Company, Boards work under it. Roughly there are more than 60 such offices in Gandhinagar.
· Earlier each office has their own budget for light bill, electricity bills and other maintenance stuff. They take some lines from BSNL as per office need and pay monthly bills to BSNL with fixed rent. This was around Rs 5-6 Crore/month before 2001. Yearly nearly 65Crore for all offices in Gandhinagar.
· Maintenance of BSNL was typical government style. Complain today, response after 10 days and repair after 20 days.
· GR and GOs were old dated and not clear much in required actions.


What is SICN:
It is a simple intercom of more than 230 offices spread all over Gandhinagar. Currently there are more than 7500 telephone lines used in various offices, residence of MLA and govt officers, disaster control, helpline etc. As a backbone around 100 Kms. Of Optical Fiber has been laid and 150 Kms. Of JFC has been laid with Structured cabling for Voice & Data nodes. There are 7000+ Voice Nodes and 5000 Data Nodes. This project is done by M/s Avaya Global, a leader in telecom domain in 2000 and till date they are maintaining this project. This is done on BOOT base and there is contract of 10 years initially which need to be renewed each year with added or modified conditions.


Advantage of SICN:· Unlimited internal calls within more than 230 offices.
· Any analog phone can be used and we can apply restriction to any number(s) like internal only, local call only or STD calls or ISD calls or MOBILE calls only
· Daily detailed usage available call to which number (s) , how much time etc for any SICN number just like our mobile bill
· Can be configured for helpline number, toll free number, emergency response system etc. Call record is also available against high level requirement.
· Digital phone available with caller id, voice multiconferencing (upto 7 lines) facility and many more advantages. These digital phones given to higher rank officials and ministers.
· Scalability is there up to 25,000 lines and more.
· Maintenance is the key issue and it is very well done here, call resolving within an hour’s or max a day. SLA is strictly followed by third party. (99% up level )


NOW FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF PROJECT:
· All inter-office call are free, there is one fixed annual maintenance charge which is hardly 3-4% of what if Govt pays to BSNL. Currently there is more than 2,00,000 internal calls within various Govt office per day, which is totally free.
· There are nearly 1,00,000 outgoing call from the all office daily. This is again routed from different operator lines (Reliance, Idea, Airtel, Tata), with optimum use and optimum saving plan configured at Centrex level. One Routing table configured there for maximum saving. Earlier bill for outgoing charges were around 5-6crore per month, which is now reduced to 15-20 L per month. Which is just 3-4% of earlier.
· There are daily around 50,000 incoming calls from outside the network.
· Much is saved by restricting the number for local call only or mobile only. So no misuse by peons or outsiders. There is also locking facility available with personal password.
· Threshold is set for higher usage numbers and informs them to reduce the usage or track the same. So individual can also use as per his designation.
· Charges are strictly levied from MLA and from Govt officers whose usage is above the prescribed limit.
· Initially there was some incoming line and outgoing line from BSNL, in which now outgoing lines are divided into multiple vendors like Airtel, Reliance, Idea,TATA so that on net call will be free just like Corporate cards in big corporate companies. And Govt has negotiated very well so that maximum gain can be attained for Govt.

Some Key points and personal experiences:· Situation is changing rapidly, earlier people use the phone keeping in mind that it is his right, he can use unlimited, no one is watching, no one is recording. Now all are aware that somebody is watching other than GOD. So there is automatic control.
· Earlier MLA’s attitude was like they are king. They don’t have to pay for anything which government provides. Now each have to pay telephone bill for their home phone usage otherwise no objection certificate is not given when they vacate the home at the end of their term. I have seen over 1L rupees bills paid by MLAs in recent times.
· There is no bill for all 26 departments in Sachivalaya, then also some proactive official ask for the bill and accordingly told their subordinates to control the usage.
· It is possible to limit the unofficial usage through policy guidelines and I have seen and feel that.
· I would like to assure you all readers that there is no corruption in this project at all at any stage.
· Now, there is policy guideline for each and every thing like who are eligible for normal phone, digital phone, who have to pay or not, complain response time and solution etc.

I have tried to search out for such network in other states, but could not find any credible information. What I found is that there is this much bill pending of MLA, MP , Govt Offices in various states with BSNL,MTNL etc. Link of same report is also mentioned in above article links.

SICN Further Planning:
It is in pipeline to integrate existing VOIP network which is already implemented up to village level will be connected with this SICN network soon, so that virtually there be no charge to call within all Govt offices in the state. Currently whole Gandhinagar is intercom, in near future whole Gujarat state up to village level will be intercom. Just imagine how much saving on telephone bill front. There may be some differences in figures mentioned above but not much.


Further reading:
Those who have read till this line are surely interested in further reading of other project which is more interesting than SICN. These are like GSWAN, Video Conferencing, IWDMS, SWAGAT etc. I will cover that in near future as per response received. I had worked in Govt Company for four years at various positions and related with all above projects at some stages.

Please don’t stop yourself to write a comment and also if possible click on Google ads, I am going to donate the earnings from adsense to mentally retired people and Panjrapol (shelter for holy cows) as mentioned at top right corner.

For further details contact himanshu.acharya@gmail.com.  Written for http://www.intel.in/   #DigitalIndia  You can click on e-gov tag for more EGOV projects of Gujarat. 

IWDMS: Failed twice in other states, running successfully in Gujarat

IWDMS: Failed twice in other states, running successfully in Gujarat.
By Himanshu Acharya

Earlier so many people had asked/suggested/shouted for transparency in Government working style, accountability of officers, Speedy work like corporate, No Document loss in Government Offices and many more things which they see in their private offices, corporate culture.
But Now Gujarat Government has the answer which most of the readers don’t know/aware OR if they know, knowledge is very limited. Today I will provide you in detail article on IWDMS system. This system is currently used by all Govt offices in Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad, which includes Board/Nigam/Corporations since 2005. Initially usage was low, but gradually it has been increased with constant effort, training, and most important Government’s strong vision. First lets see;
What is IWDMS: Integrated Workflow and Document Management System.
This is custom software is made by M/s TCS as per the E-Gov initiative of Government of Gujarat. It fulfils mainly below points, while there are so many minor benefits also.
1) To provide transparency in the Government procedures
2) Which speed up the routine procedures,
3) Which digitise the Govt records, GO, resolutions, online service book, leave management etc
4) Which unify the Govt communication.
5) Which provides traceability of records.
6) Which provides accountability to the Govt. officers.
7) Above all provides green working environment, very less papers.

This common software is developed by M/s TCS. It is based on Govt Manual and general procedures followed by various government departments.
Now the some history of this software:
Our Govt is using this software since 2005. Govt of AP and Tamilnadu had used the similar software developed by same M/s TCS in their respective states earlier in 2003-04. They failed to continue with such software for long time (it ends in almost 2 years). The possible reasons are:

1) Main and most proven thing is Govt. Officers attitude.
2) Poor knowledge of computer and systems
3) Poor software training or training on paper only.
4) Some process takes more time than manual.
5) Last reason “They have to do work with accountability”, you can relate this with first reason.

So what Gujarat Government has done to cope all above possible reason to run successfully this project. We will discuss on same further, but let us have first common idea about govt working style.
Suppose there is one department, there are total 25 departments in Gujarat Govt. Now the structure is like this low level officerSection officer (SO)Under Secretary(US)Deputy Secretary(DS)Secretary(SEC). Now low level officer receives tappals marked for his department from the registry. He simply forward it to respective SO or US, they read the tappal and give the instructions like in put up a new file, or file that tappal in any ongoing file and put up OR simply record that tappal without any action.
There are bunch of physical files with every officer, you might have seen their table full with files. This is their main duty. Sometime some files are missing, lost or intentionally blackout. Now to solve this problem above said IWDMS project come to picture.
In IWDMS system, each tappal is the Central registry receives is converted into PDF and sent to respective department’s low level officer. He does the same as said above but only difference is electronically. He has to clear all his tappal from his folder within a day, then respective officers frequently checks their folder and instruct their subordinates what to on that tappal. Whole new files created based on that tappal electronically or Tappal is sent to archive. There is also provision of digitizing old physical files through scanning of the same.
Please don’t stop your imagination here, there are lot more uses of IWDMS. Like
1)E-filing 2) Easy archiving 3) Department specific application integration with common username and password 4) emailing in built 5) some forums are available for some specific purpose 6) reporting, etc and many more

Now one may think that how Gujarat Govt can do what other two can’t?
The reason is Gujarat Govt has made the IWDMS system in line with office manual; they don’t stick with age old rules, but become liberal where required. They first asked M/s TCS to study the system and instructed to make changes accordingly.
Second, there was a compulsory training for particular software for the Govt employees in Gandhinagar. This was done thrice not twice.

Strict orders from high ranks to follow the system and weekly, monthly monitoring is there in each department. Periodic assessment done by Chief Secretary (next to CM) level.
There is constant support from M/s TCS for whole three years in each department, so that minor issues can be solved easily and in timely manner. System got changed many times as it got evaluated.
It is true that there are majority of 50+ age persons in SO and LOW level officers as there is no direct recruitment in almost last 15 years. But then also they supported the system in good manner. There was some unhappiness or attitude problem in early years, but got resolved gradually.
This system is used by almost 11000+ Govt employees in Gandhinagar Secretariat and borad/Nigams offices. Initially there was only 25-50% use in most of the departments, only some 3-4 departments use this system optimally. But now due to constant efforts and by seeing the results itself usage is increased.
There were some instances where system got down for 2-3 hours due some technical problem, but such scenario was very rare. There is strict SLA and monitoring mechanism there.
IWDMS Project was selected by Public Sector Technology and Management Magazine, Singapore, for Government Technology Award, 2007 in the Connected Government Category.

One can find more information on the same from below link.
http://www.gujaratinformatics.com/gov/projects/depts/7_IWDMS.htm

GSWAN-the backbone of Guj Govt

Today I am going to talk about GSWAN project, which is the backbone of all IT (voice, video, data) related projects in Gujarat since 2001 (Including SICN, SICN is for Gandhinagar only). You all have gone through SICN project in previous post.  As per the CISCO (Leader in Networking domain); GSWAN is the second largest IP based network in the ASIA region.

GSWAN stands for Gujarat State Wide Area Network. Network which connects each and every Gujarat Government offices through IP network up to TALUKA level and in today ‘s date almost at the village level(more than 11,000 villages covered out of total 18000 villages in Gujarat).

The most amazing thing here is that GOG (Government of Gujarat) has used single network(GSWAN) to connect all the GOG offices in Gujarat since 2001 itself, while so called advanced state in IT called Andhra Pradesh has used individual network, based on different topologies to connect major Govt. departments. You will really amazed by knowing that the State of Andhra has recently given contract to M/s TCS to do State Wide Area Network just like Gujarat in August-2009. You can judge the difference.

For all technical and non-technical readers some preamble:

Central Government(Government of India) has made one independent body called “National Informatics Centre “ (almost during 1985) having main office in Delhi. It has one state NIC centre in each state which helps individual state Government to fulfil their IT related requirements. Services of NIC are available to all states much before the 1995 and till date.

But as usual to distinguish in each and every field, Gujarat Government has setup “Gujarat Informatics Limited “in 1999 sidelining NIC in Gujarat. After that in 2000 Gujarat Government has started implementing this GSWAN and SICN project under guidance of rare available IES officers in India (Indian Engineering Service….just like IAS,IPS). His name is Shri R. K . Dave. We can say he is the father of both projects. Under his leadership both projects had been operational within a short span of 9 month to 1 year.

Technical detail of GSWAN project is available here.

For your curiosity, central Government has launched SWAN (State Wide Area Network) project/policy in 2004 for state wise uniform network. They have accepted Gujarat as roll model, because Gujarat has already done it way back with IP protocol, while other states had used some other topology and protocol (mostly failed).

Sadly, in today’s date very less number of states has done the same. While in other hand, Gujarat has successfully extended the network up to village level. Out of total 18,000 villages more than 11000 villages have GSWAN connectivity in today’s date.

Structure of GSWAN:

1)     More than 25,000 email user id created with different types of internet/intranet access based on their parent departments.

2)     Each have to login into client first (authorize) and then they can access internet.

3)     Video conferencing facility is made available up to District and Taluka level whenever GSWAN is made available to the Taluka level offices (2-3 instruments in Taluka level office)

4)     In disaster event, OB VAN is there in four zones of Gujarat. Which can easily make available telephone, VoIP and network available in any geographical are of GUJARAT or INDIA.

5)     VoIP phone made available in district and Taluka level offices.

6)     All offices up to Taluka level can communicate with their parent department through voice, video and data. 

7)     Common portal for accessing email & common services. Email is also available in outlook on intranet.

8)     Webcasting can be avail for specific function, Govt program etc on GSWAN network.

9)     GSWAN is common network platform for all departmental application like treasury, IWDMS,HMIS, IFMS etc.

Security of GSWAN:

Security is almost full proof here through software like VLAN, partitioning, CYBEROAM, use of public IP address etc while at hardware level it used firewalls, routers for the same.

In part-II we will cover Various stages of GSWAN from 2001, Usage of GSWAN, Benefit of GSWAN, Future Plan , personal experiences etc. It is true that in the term of IT industry Gujarat is way behind Karnataka, AP and some other states, but it is very much true and fact that Gujarat is the way ahead of same states in the usage of IT in the Governance (E-governance). It is possible due to GSWAN only.

Used for useIt has got many awards nationally and internationally. More than 150 Government portals are hosted on GSWAN servers and network. Nowweb casting, video conferencing, website filtering, VOIP everything is available and optimally utilzed in this network.

Articles about SICN project officially and from media

Links:

Unofficial:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2004/11/22/stories/2004112200030100.htm
The idea of GSWAN was conceived as early as 2000 and the bulk of the network became operational by 2002. In addition, the Secretariat Integrated Communication Network (SICN), which connects all the offices of the Secretariat through dedicated leased lines for telephony applications, has been integrated with GSWAN. SICN connects nearly 5,500 offices and the daily call flow on the network exceeds 1.25 lakh.


Official:
Gujarat Govt Sites

Gujarat IT POLICY(2006-2011) SICN EXCERT:
http://dst.gujarat.gov.in/pdf/it_policy_2006-2011.pdf
10.2.2 Sachivalaya Integrated Communication Network (SICN) – SICN is the
voice communication network for Government offices at Gandhinagar, which is
connecting almost all the government offices like Krishi Bhavan, Police Bhavan,
Udyog Bhavan, MS Building, Civil Hospital etc. At present with 6800 voice
connections, the project has enabled faster & better communication within the
network at no extra cost to the Government. This facility handles about 1,25,000
internal calls and a further 70,000 calls outside the network each day.

http://financedepartment.gujarat.gov.in/budget08_09_pdf/33%20-%20Development%20Programme%20(English).pdf
Sachivalaya Integrated Communication Network (SICN)
8.5 SICN is a voice communication net work for various Govt. offices in Gandhinagar.
Currently this net work connects a large number of Govt. offices including the
residence of Hon. Ministers, Krushi Bhavan, Police Bhavan, Udyog Bhavan, MS
Building, Civil Hospital, etc. For this purpose SICN utilizes Optical Fiber Cables
(OFC), jelly field cables, CAT cables, etc. Currently there are 7532 voice
connections provided under SICN. For this purpose, 380 outgoing and 120 incoming
lines have been provided. This project has rendered quality communication services
to the Sachivalaya and various HoDs in Gandhinagar. In addition, SICN has
provided telecommunication services to various Govt. offices in Gandhinagar in an
economical manner


Central Govt Sites:
http://www.csc-india.org/info/files/downloads/pdddocs/egov/CSC_Services_Analysis_Gujarat_Report.doc


SICN Sachivalaya Integrated Communication Network
State-of-the-art EPABX of 5100 subscribers, CCTV, Inmersat telephones for disaster communication, video conference facility attached with EPABX with multi conference unit, and data communication back bone. Some of the points kept into consideration were number of users and the coverage area.
Has been completed and very much in operation with high traffic figures of
Average 1,25,000 calls are made within the network every day;
Average 60-70,000 calls made out side the network every day and
Average 40,000 calls are incoming every day.
http://www.ibef.org/download/IBEF_GUJARAT_26052008.pdf

http://www.pppinindia.com/infrastructure-gujarat.asp
Secretariat Integrated Communication Network (SICN) has more than 7,500 voice connections.


Other News headlines:

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/court-seeks-list-of-mps-not-paying-phone-power-bills_10080793.html
Court seeks list of MPs not paying phone, power bills
Counsel also submitted that the agencies have no difficulty in recovering money from sitting MPs but it was a problem in case of those who are no more a MPs and have dues running into millions of rupees.
Counsel for the ITDC said a total of Rs.10 million was pending against 244 MPs and it had initiated proceedings against 37 MPs.
The NDMC’s lawyer informed the court that the unpaid bills of MPs added up to Rs.50 million though he did not mention their number.
The MTNL counsel said MPs owed it Rs.60 million.

Technical and implementation detail of SICN

Name of the project: Sachivalaya Integrated Communication Network (SICN)

SICN is a network owned by Government of Gujarat for their Voice, Data & Video Communication needs. This is Asia’s biggest network of Govt. of its kind. This Network is spread in the periphery of 12 kms. Connecting almost all the Govt. Boards and Corporations offices in capital of Gujarat Gandhinagar...
Department under which the project was taken: Information Technology Department, GAD, Government of Gujarat
Project Description:
SICN is a network owned by Government of Gujarat for their Voice, Data & Video Communication needs. This is Asia’s biggest network of Govt. of its kind. This Network is spread in the periphery of 12 kms. Connecting almost all the Govt. Boards and Corporations offices in capital of Gujarat Gandhinagar.

The core of this network is Lucent make DEFINITY G3r EPABX with the capacity of 7000+ lines and 570 trunks working on E1 R2 MFC and ISDN-PRI, expandable up to 25000 lines.
Through OFC this EPABX is connected to 11 remote units.

As a backbone around 100 Kms. Of Optical Fiber has been laid and 150 Kms. Of JFC has been laid with Structured cabling for Voice & Data nodes. There are 7000+ Voice Nodes and 5000 Data Nodes.

Network Architecture:

This Network is equipped with the DEFINITY Enterprise Communications Server (ECS), which organizes and routes voice transmissions. It can connect to private and public telephone networks, Ethernet LANs, ATM networks, and the Internet.

This network has the following components.
§ Processor Port Network
§ Remote Units.
§ OFC and UTP Backbone
§ MDF and IDF
§ Patch Panels
§ Endpoint (Analog or Digital)

Every DEFINITY ECS has one Processor Port Network (PPN). The PPN houses the Switch Processing Element and Center Stage Switch (CSS). The Switch Processing Element (SPE) contains the central processing unit, which supervises system operation. It also contains a mass storage system for loading system software and saving system translations. The Center Stage Switch (CSS) is a connection hub that provides port network communication to allow for growth. RUs are connected via fiber links to provide the connections required for voice and data information transfer. It provides both circuit-switched and packet-switched connections. Fiber Link Administration creates the translation data defining these links by identifying the endpoint pairs for each link.

OFC has been laid as the back bone for data networking. These OFCs are SMF and MMF both.

Remote Units (RU) are used when the system grows beyond the capacity of a single port network or must serve geographically dispersed offices. (RUs) provide additional ports as needed.
A system can have up to 43 RUs, Subscriber lines are coming from these RUs and these lines are connected at MDF & IDF and then carried by JFC cable to the distribution panel. From Distribution Panel / Patch Panel through CAT-5 Cable (UTP Cabling) it goes to the end subscriber.

Network Diagram

Status:

(a) Year. 2000
DESCRIPTION
QTY
Project Award on
22/3/2000
Project commissioned on
30/9/2000
Project Cost
9,54,17,008/-
EPABX System
AVAYA make Definity G3r.
Total Remote Unit
10
Total Voice Connection
4500
Total Data Connection
4000
In coming Lines
180
Out Going Lines
180
Average Internal Calls (Daily)
> 90,000 To 1Lac
Average Incoming Calls (Daily)
> 18,000 to 20,000
Average Outgoing Calls (Daily)
> 40,000 to 45,000
Remote Units At
New Sachivalaya, Old Sachivalaya, Vidhansabha, Sector 19, Sector 20, Udyog Bhavan, Police Bhavan & Krishi Bhavan
(b) Year. 2009(Till 15th July)
DESCRIPTION
QTY
Expansion At
New Remote Unit at Old Sachivalaya 500 lines & Expansion of Udyog Bhavan Remote Unit 250 Lines.
Total Remote Unit
11
Total Voice Connection
7245
Total Data Connection
7500
In coming Lines
180
Out Going Lines
480
Average Internal Calls (Daily)
1,80,000 Approx.
Average Incoming Calls (Daily)
20,000 Approx.
Average Outgoing Calls (Daily)
1,10,000 Approx.
New Office connected
298

List of the some initiative taken by Government of Gujarat after 2001.

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