e-Governance Initiatives

e-Governance in West Bengal: West Bengal gearing-up for e-Governance

The key objective of e-Governance is to enable West Bengal to transform into a knowledge-driven welfare society with extensive use of IT and ITeS in Governance and in the daily lives of the people of the State.

The Government is committed to build a citizen-centric, inclusive and information-driven welfare Society to make the public services available to all sections of the State in a transparent and efficient manner through e-Governance with use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In this direction, the Government has taken up extensive e-Governance projects and schemes in tune with the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) as well as some State-specific initiatives.

Webel Technology Limited (WTL) is the State Designated Agency (SDA) /State Implementing Authority (SIA) for implementation of Digital India Initiatives (erstwhile National e- Governance Projects (NeGP))

Major e-Governance initiatives & activities of WTL:

WTL undertakes the complete job of development of a computerized System, right from its inception till the final implementation. WTL perform:

  • Feasibility and Requirement Study and Analysis
  • Detailed System Study
  • Design of the Computerized System
  • Software Development
  • Website Development
  • Online Application
  • System Implementation
  • West Bengal State Data Centre (WBSDC)
  • West Bengal State Wide Area Network (WBSWAN)
  • WB e-District Mission Mode Project
  • State Portal & Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG)
  • Centralized e-Office
  • m-Governance
  • Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network System (CCTNS)
  • e-Governance initiatives in Commercial Taxes Directorate
  • e-Governance initiatives in Municipalities ( e-Municipalities)
  • e-Governance initiatives in Land & Land Records
  • e-Governance initiatives in Agriculture
  • e-Governance initiatives in Panchayats (e-Panchayats)
  • Capacity Building
  • UIDAI and Other Projects
  • Community Service Centre(CSC)
  • Smart Card
  • Computerization of Govt. Depts.
  • Computerization of Police Networks
  • Centralized Document Management System
  • e-Procurement
  • All other e- Governance Projects of Government of West Bengal

Mission Mode projects (MMP) in West Bengal

State Data Center

West Bengal State Data Center (WBSDC) has been developed by the State of West Bengal, which is envisioned as the ‘Shared, reliable and secure infrastructure services centre for hosting and managing the e-Governance Applications of State and its constituent departments’ and the same has been developed as a part of Mission Mode Project under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) (presently known as Digital India) and to ensure adherence to common principles and policies towards realization of the vision.

Department of Information Technology and Electronics, Government of West Bengal (DIT&E, GoWB) is the key and core stakeholder of implementation of various Mission Mode Projects under NeGP and West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Ltd. (WBEIDCL) had been identified as the State Implementing Agency (SIA) towards the support of such implementation. A Composite Team had been formed with the officers from WBEIDCL and National Informatics Center (NIC) for shouldering the responsibility of techno-administrative support of overall SDC operations, management and hosting various departmental applications at SDC.

Now, Webel Technology Limited (WTL), a subsidiary of West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited involves in execution of the work related to e- Governance activities as Nodal Agency, as per decision of the State Government through the change of rules of Business. Webel Technology Limited has now become separate entity under the administrative control of Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government of West Bengal. Accordingly WB State Data Center activities are now being taken care of by Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government of West Bengal with Webel Technology Limited as the Nodal Agency. Webel Technology Limited is authorized as both State Nodal Agency (SNA) and State Implementing Agency (SIA) for all e- Governance related activities in place of M/S West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited. A Composite Team has been formed with the officers from WTL and National Informatics Center (NIC) for shouldering the responsibility of techno-administrative support of overall SDC operations, management and hosting various departmental applications at SDC.

The WBSDC is the key-supporting element of e-Government Initiatives & businesses for delivering services to the citizens with greater reliability, availability and serviceability of the Government Departments. SDC facilitates consolidation of services, applications and infrastructure. SDC provides many functionalities and some of the key functionalities are Central data repository, Secure Data Storage, Online Delivery of Services, Citizen Information/Services Portal, State Intranet Portal, Remote Management and Service Integration. As one of the pivotal constituents of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), a series of various Government Departments applications are being hosted at SDC. Since SDC is the one and only repository of data and applications pertaining to the State eGovernance applications, the goal of SDC is to secure the Line Departments data and applications, which is one of the major challenges in these days, and to improve the quality of delivery of services to Business, Government and citizen in particular which can only be delivered through appropriate management of internal operations and back office.

The WBSDC is built upon a floor area of about 400 sq m with a provision for extension of about 120 sq m. The SWAN and WBSDC are based on the latest state-of-art technology with a vigorous architecture having multilevel redundancies, security and scalability with an additional emphasis in three-tier power supply system. The WBSDC complied with a world class Tier II data centre (having redundant capacity components and distribution path serving business continuity) as per TIA 942 standards with a guaranteed service level of 99.749% has a safe, secure, monitored, highly available power and cooling arrangements that is capable of accommodating several racks for network components and servers under centralized and simplified management. WBSDC is on the process of achieving ISO 27001/20000 Standard.

The WBSDC is powered through a separate substation with two different sources of grid power supplies supported with multiple generator sets. A sturdy building management system with fire fighting arrangements, water leak detection system, biometrics for access control, alarms & surveillance, rodent repellent, public address system etc ensures safe and secured operation of WBSDC complying with ISMS standards. The WBSDC is fabricated with a full-bodied network infrastructure complied with both present generation Internet Protocol (IP v4) as well next generation Internet Protocol (IP v6) using Dual-Stack deployment and equipped with multilevel security system including intrusion prevention, demilitarization and two-level firewalling. WBSDC has robust Intranet Backbone coupled with 2 different Upstream Internet Service Providers.

Besides, the Data Centre possesses several servers to cater to shared services over multiple OS platforms with virtualization, viz. Windows, Linux and database management systems such as Oracle, MSSQL etc. The shared services also include power, storage space, local area network, tape library and abundant rack space to accommodate additional servers in the server farm. Facility Management Services (FMS) including routine backup, continuous monitoring of security, servers, network devices, application and database services, immediate resolution of defects and incidents are part and parcel of the 24 x 7 operational infrastructures.

The FMS also includes furnished accommodation for the support personnel to be deployed by the Line Departments for regular support of their infrastructure. Measures are also being taken to create Disaster Recovery Service Centre (DRS) in a different seismic zone and integrate the WBSDC with it in order to maintain absolute business continuity with prevention of any data loss.

Line Departments interested in hosting applications in WBSDC may choose any one of the following hosting models depending on the complexity, criticality and volume of their application: Dedicated, Partially shared, and fully shared hosting models. They need to sign a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Department of Information Technology & Electronics.

Keeping the above in view, it is compulsory for the SDC to adapt to standard practices since its inception which are in vogue in the global scenario. Accordingly, SDC has achieved ISO/IEC 20000:2011 that applies to IT Service Management System for maintaining desired quality of services and ISO/IEC 27001:2005 that applies to security of infrastructure, data and applications of the state. In order to meet the objectives of NeGP keeping the efficient and effective service delivery in mind, SDC is required to collaborate with several stakeholders, particularly the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), the Data Centre Operator, various system integrators of the participating Line Departments and etc. In view of this, it is very pertinent and imperative that the stakeholders do follow certain standards, policies and procedures besides executing certain basic roles and responsibilities in order to avoid confusion in and among the stakeholders.

Since the State Data Centre has already completed 7 years of operation, most of the compute is utilized and would require upgradation. The technology used in the current Data Centre is more than 7 years old and would require refresh to keep up to date for security reasons and as per industry standards.

Currently almost all items of the existing SDC has gone obsolete and was declared out of support by the respective Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and the devices are in very critical condition. In view of the above immediate replacement of the obsolete items is extremely important for smooth operation of WBSDC, part of which have been taken care in the revamping & expansion of State Data Centre which is going on. The Data Centre is currently facing a huge demand from the State User departments for hosting their applications.

In view of the above, it was decided to comprehensively develop an all new Data center in the 2nd Floor of Moni Bhandar Building, Webel Bhavan, Salt Lake, Kolkata. The area of the proposed data center is 5000 Sq.Ft. approximately and it will have an integration with the existing Data Center. The revamping & expansion of SDC is expected to be completed within January'2019.

Please find here all the relevant information regarding West Bengal State Data Center (WBSDC)

WBSWAN

WBSWAN : The State's Information Highway

West Bengal State Wide Area Network is the triple play backbone network for data, voice and video communication throughout the state of West Bengal. Over this network various Intranet and e-Governance activities of the Government of West Bengal are being carried out.

Salient features of WBSWAN

  • WBSWAN network provides connectivity of Data, Voice & Video Communication facilities from State Head Quarters at Kolkata up to all District, Sub Division and Block Headquarters over circuits leased from BSNL. The District Head Quarters are connected to the State Head Quarters in Writers' Building as well as Webel Bhavan, Salt Lake over dual fiber optic links, which safe guards smooth operation in case of failure of one SHQ due to some major problem/natural disaster, etc.
  • Government's e-mail facilities (@wb.gov.in) have been extended to various Government officials / MLAs over WBSWAN intranet or Internet.
  • 1 Gbps Connectivity with National Knowledge Network ( NKN ) has been extended up to the WBSWAN State Head Quarters and then proliferated to various Government Departments for accessing Internet and various e-Governance applications.
  • In the Pilot district Bardhaman , all Gram Panchayats ( 277 nos ) have been connected with their respective Block Headquarters over Radio links.
  • State Capital as well as each District Headquarter has studio based Video Conferencing facility through Multipoint Conferencing Unit (MCU) at Kolkata. Also the important Government buildings in Kolkata are being provided with video conferencing facilities so that Government officials can directly talk to State /district level officials
  • Software based desktop video conferencing has been implemented in all districts, sub divisions and block offices
  • Provision for horizontal expansion for other departments' connectivity at all levels.

WBSWAN services & applications

wbcswan
  • To aggregate the e-Governance efforts of different Government departments in the remote offices spread across the State, Departmental WANs have been built around the backbone by connecting to the nearest node of WBSWAN.
  • Starting with the district level Treasuries connected over WBSWAN, now 85 sub divisional and district treasuries are connected to their head quarters at Kolkata using WBSWAN network
  • District level offices of Commercial Tax Department were first connected to WBSWAN for data transaction. Later, check posts, charge offices and circle offices were added to the network.
  • The KMA and non KMA Municipalities along with their other State level offices have been connected over WBSWAN backbone and they conduct video conferences and carry out regular data transfer.
  • L&LR Department, Government of West Bengal is going to integrate their software with the Registration department under NLRMP. Under the scheme all 427 L&LR offices throughout the State are to be integrated over the WBSWAN backbone for online communication of data to the central server at the Department's HQ.
  • Nationwide CCTNS project has embarked to connect all police stations and other higher offices .WBSWAN shall provide ports for the point to point connectivity of about 300 police offices.
  • About 140 Regional labour offices had been connected to the nearest WBSWAN POP so that transaction data entries can take place.
  • Network block diagram (Fig.-1), current execution status of WBSWAN backbone and horizontal offices and contact details of WBSWAN team have been provided below.

Current Implementation Status of WBSWAN: (Data up to 31.3.2013)

  • WBSWAN POPs operational : 357
  • No of GoWB depts. on board : 27
  • No of Horizontal offices connected ( in districts) : 520
    (Treasury /Com Tax / KMA and Non KMA Municipalities / Dist Police HQs/ Dist & Sub Div Hospitals/ Regional Training Centres / Dist F&S offices/ DLLRO, SDLLRO and BLLRO offices / PWD offices/Block LWFC offices)
  • Network Operator : Tulip Telecom Pvt. Ltd
  • Third Party Auditor : Ernst & Young
  • System Implementation and consulting Agency : WBEIDC Ltd

Contact Details :

Mr. Jadugopal Mondal,

Deputy General Manager, WBEIDC Ltd .

Block EP&GP, Sector V, Salt Lake, Kolkata -700091.

09051041622 / (033)23392303

jadugopalm@wb.gov.in , jadu.mondal@webel-india.com

Ms. Soma Dey,

Senior Executive, WBEIDC Ltd

Block EP&GP, Sector V, Salt Lake, Kolkata -700091.

09851056289 / (033)23392277

soma@wb.gov.in , soma.dey@webel-india.com

WB e-District Mission Mode Projects

Brief Overview of e-District

West Bengal e-District is a Mission Mode Project with the objective of making the State's services available to the citizens through a computerized system. The services may be availed of through Internet or by visiting any CSC-s (Common Service Center) or a Kiosk. It may not be necessary to visit the Government Offices for submitting the application, knowing the status or receiving certificate / license etc.

Webel Technology Limited (WTL) under the administrative control of Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government of West Bengal is involved in successfully implementation of WB e-District project as well as execution of the work related to all other e- Governance activities as Nodal Agency and authorized as State Implementing Agency (SIA) for Government of West Bengal.

Government of West Bengal has been awarded SKOCH ORDER –OF-MERIT (Gold Medal) for year 2017 and Technology Sabha Awards 2018 of Express Computer for Enterprise Apps Category for West Bengal e-District MMP project

The objective of the project is to provide govt. services online for the citizen (G2C).

  • A single-window G2C e-Governance portal where 120+ services across 23 districts and most of the departments have already gone online.
  • Portal hosted from State Data Centre having requisite infrastructure to ensure
    • Uninterrupted availability
    • Data security
    • Accessible through Internet / SWAN (State Wide Area Network)
    • Single point maintainability
  • Robust environment
    • Unix based Operating System (RHEL)
    • WebSphere as Application server
    • IBM DB2 as RDBMS
    • Load balancer
    • Stand-by servers
  • High Scalability to handle
    • Any number of services
    • High volume transactions
  • High adaptability
    • Integration with services, irrespective of technology
    • Across-the-counter services
    • End-to-end process flow based services
  • Available through Internet / Common service Centre / Kiosks
  • Salient features
    • Uniform look-and-feel
    • Instant status update to citizen through SMS / email
    • Instant status update to citizen through SMS / email
    • Application tracking through Internet / CSC / Kiosk
    • Periodic SMS / email alerts for approvers
    • Online payment to Govt. through GRIPS
    • Digital signature on approval
    • Bilingual applications (English, Bengali)
    • Dashboard for all
    • MIS for Govt. officials
    • Integration with e-Taal

Process followed for implementation

Infrastructure:

  • Procurement and Commissioning of necessary Data Centre Infrastructure for hosting e-District platform considering scalability requirement of next 5 years.
  • Identification of requirement of infrastructure for end user locations across all districts.
  • Procurement and Commissioning of identified infrastructure for 491 end user locations.
  • Last mile connectivity at end user locations
  • Readiness Certificates for
    • the end user locations (PoPs) from respective District Magistrates
    • SDC from appointed third party auditor.

Application

  • Identification of G2C services after discussing with all districts and departments
  • Requirement study ( As-Is) with concerned authority
  • Approval of System Requirement Specifications (SRS)
  • e-District Application Software Design and Development
  • User Acceptance Testing Sign off
  • STQC/Third party auditor Certification
  • Issuance of Govt. Order
  • Go live
  • Application Training & Capacity Building
  • Operation & Maintenance

Innovative aspect of the project

  • Provision of Integration with services available in other departmental application irrespective of technology
  • Eligible to adopt complex workflow of services like RTI, Occupancy Certificate of NKDA etc. as it comprising in-built Robust and configurable workflow
  • Application can be Sent Back in case of any anomaly in document
  • Fees will be received once the application is otherwise approved
  • Provision for saving draft copy
  • Reusability of previously submitted documents by the same applicant while availing a new application.
  • Overcoming network bandwidth challenge by introducing the feature of uploading split documents
  • Dashboard on Service wise District wise transaction status for all, Govt. officers as well as applicant, to achieve transparency.
  • Appreciating the Top Performing Districts of the Month (with respect to Application submission and processing) by highlighting them in the Login page of the portal

Description of solution implemented

  • URL for Applicant: https://edistrict.wb.gov.in
  • URL for Govt. Officers: https://edistrict.wb.gov.in/workFlow
  • Bilingual, Reusable and Configurable Workflow
  • PKI for digital signature
  • Automatic report generation through MIS along with dashboard view
  • Third party integration for SMS Gateway, single window Integration, Payment Gateway
  • Linked applications to the Mobile e-governance Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG)
  • Integrated e-governance system with Government Receipt Portal System (GRIPS) and Electronic Transaction Aggregation and Analysis Layer (e-Taal)
  • Accessible through Internet and WB SWAN

Governance practice involved

  • Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of public services electronically to citizens at their door steps
  • Exchange of information with citizens
  • Improving internal efficiency
  • Reducing costs or increasing revenue
  • Re-structuring of administrative processes
  • Utilizing the pillars of State Data Centres (SDCs), State Wide Area Network (SWANs) and Common Service Centres (CSCs) optimally to deliver the public services
  • formation of District e-Governance Society (DeGS) with a District Implementation Committee in the all the Districts
  • Deployment of District Project Managers and District Technical Managers for smooth operation.
  • Data recovery from DR site of SDC if needed due the Act of God or Terrorism.
  • Instead of mere translation of existing process, business process re-engineering done after discussing with concerned authority.

Coverage of population

Geographical - It covers whole of the state comprising 23 districts and most of the departments.

Functional - out of 195 services 120+ services in production and 75 will be in production in next 1 year.

Current Status - More than 60 Lacs of application submitted.

Comparison of Pre-deployment with post-deployment scenario

Pre-deployment
  • Largely manual system
  • Inefficient underlying processes
  • Limited hours of operation at offices
  • Only offline filing of applications and documents
  • Only Physical interactions for all transactions - Point of delay in service delivery and had Ethical issues
  • Government issued documents had authentication risks – Lack of digital signatures
  • Documents submitted in physical form- prone to mishandling and misplacement
  • Lack of application tracking tools
  • Governance report generation was time and effort consuming
Post-deployment
  • Unified e-governance portal
  • Empowerment of citizens
  • Administration's service delivery boosted
  • Online filing of application and documents
  • Automatic processing of applications
  • Real-time tracking of application status
  • SMS , email and portal based alert system for tracking
  • Digitally signed government issued documents
  • Alerts to government officials about the number of cases pending for review
  • Hassle-free data retrieval.
  • Timely report generation and prompt response to public requirements by government officials.

Benefits of solution implemented

  • Application received online.
  • Documents are scanned and attached along with applications
  • Status of each event notified vide SMS / e-Mail
  • Fees can be taken once application is principally approved
  • Fees can be taken online
  • Approval / Rejection of Application through System
  • Anytime downloading of Certificate / License, etc.
  • Fully equipped Kiosk/Helpdesk is also available to help the people less acquainted with computers and its accessories, in submitting the application or getting hard copy of the certificate.

Potential of replicability arising from success of the project

  • Highly Scalable platform of WB e-District ready to handle any no. of services as well as high volume transaction
  • Robust platform of this project ready to adopt G2B and G2G services

Key enabling factors WB e-District project:

Business process re-engineering:

Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering to recognize the projects that involved analysis and re-design of workflow and which resulted in improvement in outcomes related to efficiency, effectiveness of process, cost, quality, service delivery or a combination of these.

  • from the archaic offline Forms in force to a structured Certificate
  • from the tedious application process to ease of access
  • improved efficiencies
  • Status of each event notified vide SMS / e-Mail
  • Digitally signed Certificate /Documents ensuring authenticity
Change Management
  • changes in government’s transaction process
  • change in service delivery mechanism
  • Increasing popularity of Online application resulting the decrease in count of Offline application drastically
Technology adaptations/ Innovative deployment

Innovative Use of Technology in e-Governance which resulted in delivering enhanced value to its beneficiaries (Citizens).

  • Rapid development on Java/J2EE Technology using customised e-District framework inherited from Spring
  • Robust and configurable workflow capable of handling complex process
  • Adherence to latest cyber security vulnerabilities in coding sequences, certified by Third Party Auditors
Industry best practices, standards compliant with
  • CMMI level 5
  • GIGW
  • W3C
  • OWASP’s vulnerability, as applicable
  • JCE Encryption for online payment

Outstanding performance in Citizen-Centric Service Delivery which resulted in delivering enhanced value (qualitative or quantitative or both) to its beneficiaries.

  • More than 7 Lac application submitted.
  • Out of those 5 lacs delivered
  • Around 8.5 lac legacy data uploaded efficiently for processing of subsequent services
e-Districtt
e-Districtt

Common Service Center (CSC)

CSC 2.0 Scheme

Based on the assessment of CSC scheme, the Government launched the CSC 2.0 scheme in 2015 to expand the outreach of CSCs to all Gram Panchayats across the country.

Under CSC 2.0 scheme, at least one CSC will be set up in each of the 2.5 lakh GPs across the country by 2019. CSCs functioning under the existing scheme will also be strengthened and integrated with additional 1.5 lakh CSCs across the country. CSC 2.0 scheme would consolidate service delivery through a universal technology platform, thereby making e-services, particularly G2C services accessible to citizens anywhere in the country.

Key Features of CSC 2.0 scheme
  • A self-sustaining network of 2.5 lakh CSCs in Gram Panchayats
  • Large bouquet of e-services through a single delivery platform
  • Standardization of services and capacity building of stakeholders
  • Localised Help Desk support
  • Sustainability of VLEs through maximum commission sharing
  • Encouraging more women as VLEs

In the State of West Bengal, CSC scheme is running with state branding as “TathyaMitra Kendra” under able supervision of West Bengal State Rural Development Agency (WBSRDA) as State Designated Agency (SDA) under Department of Panchayat& Rural Development Department, Government of West Bengal. Snapshot of TathyaMitra Kendra as follows:

  • Number of TathyaMitra Kendra (Registered) in the State - 24048
  • Number of TathyaMitra Kendra (Operational) in the State - 11273
  • Total number of Rural TathyaMitra Kendra (Operational) in the State - 9192
  • Total number of UrbanTathyaMitra Kendra (Operational) in the State - 2081
  • Total number of TathyaMitra Kendra operating from GP premises - 1059 (approx)
  • Total number of TathyaMitra Kendra operating from Municipality premises – 89 (approx.)
  • Total number of GP covered through TathyaMitra Kendra –3240 (out of 3357 as per Census 2011)

TathyaMitrakendras are providing a good number of online services to the citizens of West Bengal and a snapshot in this regard as follows:

  • eDistrict Services (All services including Income Certificate, Domicile Certificate, ROR of Land Records, All labourer (Transport, Building Construction etc.) registration)
  • Education Services (IGNOU, NIOS, Skill (PMKVY, RPL, PWD etc), PMGDISHA, Cybergram, Tally Certification, CAD)
  • Election Commission of India (EC) Services
  • Unique identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Services (New enrolment, Correction, Card printing including PVC card, Best Finger Detection, Seeding)
  • Passport Services
  • Banking Correspondent (27 banks)
  • PAN Card Services
  • Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) services (National Pension Scheme (NPS), Atal Pension Yojona (APY), PradhanMantriJeevanJyotiBeemaYojona (PMJJBY), PradhanMantriSurakshaBimaYojona (PMSBY)
  • Agricultural Services (State FasalBimaYojona (SBSY), Soil Health Card, Agri Equipment requisition application (State level))
  • Health Care Services (Consultation, Pathological test, Prescription, Medicine dispensing (Janousodhi Center for generic medicine) – Allopath (Appolo&Medanta local language doctors) and Homeopath)
  • State e district/SSDG services
  • Electricity Bill collection in various states
  • Data Card Recharge
  • DTH Recharge
  • CSC Bazaar – e commerce/shopping service
  • Mobile Bill Payments
  • Mobile Recharge
  • Insurance Premium Collection (all insurance companies registered with IRDA)
  • Insurance Policy (General, Life, Cattle, Crop, Medical from all Insurance companies registered with IRDA)
  • Brilliants- medical/IAS/IIT/Banking courses
  • Travel – IRCTC/AIR Tickets/Bus Bookings
  • Brilliants- medical/IAS/IIT/Banking courses
  • Online Training
  • Application for Individual House Hold Latrine under Swatch Bharat
  • Nayamitra (deployment of retired Law Practitioners at Village level for disposal of court cases and Legal Aid for poor people)
  • Rural Broadband connection through WIFI-Choupal project

State Portal (SP) - State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG)

State Portal is envisaged to be the single-point web portal of the State government for delivering various Government Services in an electronic mode. The following will be made available to the citizens on the portal:

  • List of Services
  • Respective Government offices/Departments providing services
  • eForms-Electronic application forms for various Government services, which citizens can submit online

State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) is an intelligent routing mechanism, which will route a citizen's application for a service from State Portal to the respective Government department(s). The gateway will also route back the acknowledgement/status/any other related information to the citizen from the Government department during the processing cycle of the service. SSDG will also enable sharing and interoperability of data across various Government departments.

The project had received administrative approval of DEITY, GoI on 30.03.2009 Vide No. 3(21)/09-EG-2 with the total project cost of Rs. 1161.50 lakhs. RFP process for selection of implementation agency for the project has been completed and LoI has been issued to selected vendor viz. Hewlett-Packard (HP).

About 23 services from 14 departments have been identified for bringing them under SP-SSDG for electronic delivery to the citizens. Some of the major services are Application for merit cum means scholarships for students, Application for Ex-gratia due to loss of life as a result of natural disasters, Application for Micro credit scheme for Self-help groups, Application for issuance of Minority status certificate, Application for Infrastructural support to Reputed NGOs running educational projects for the development & welfare of minorities and Application for scheme of Infrastructure development for Minority affairs etc

A diagrammatic presentation of SSDG architecture depicting flow of information through various levels is as shown below:

ssdg

Initiatives towards Ease Of Doing Business (EODB):

Innovative approach of DB level integration & use of RAD platform for EODB

Introduction -

For Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in a state, more than 100 Services were required to develop and out of this 75 services were supposed to integrate for a dynamic Composite Application Form (CAF). To achieve this impossible task within a short time span of 4 Months for Information Technology & Electronics Department used an innovative approach of Database level Integration.

Webel Technology Limited (WTL) under the administrative control of Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government of West Bengal is involved in successfully implementation of EODB Services through innovative approach of Database level Integration and use of Rapid Application Development (RAD) Platform as well as execution of the work related to all other e- Governance activities as Nodal Agency and authorized as State Implementing Agency (SIA) for Government of West Bengal.

Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government of West Bengal has been awarded SKOCH ORDER –OF-MERIT SKOCH SMART GVERNANCE AWARD 2017 for innovative approach of DB level integration & use of RAD platform for EODB

This is an important for states to bring investment into states to fuel economic growth and create opportunities.

Investors and businesses may need multiple approvals from multiple departments for starting or operating a business. The online single window will provide the following functionalities:

  • Single dynamic composite application form (CAF) for multiple services allowing an investor or a business to fill up one form for multiple clearances and approvals;
  • Single Online Payment for multiple services through an integrated payment gateway with all modes of payment viz., debit card/ credit card/ net banking enabled;
  • Breaking the Composite Application Forms electronically into individual forms and sending the forms to the backend systems of various Departments electronically along with the corresponding proof of payment;
  • Online tracking of status of applications while they are being processed by various Departments;
  • Online communication of approval; and
  • Downloading of approvals/ NoCs/ permits/ clearances etc. online.
Abbreviations -
OSWP Online single window portal
ADR Axpert data router – Windows app that will read encrypted data packets and write into database.
ADE Axpert data exchange – Windows app that will exchange encrypted data over HTTPS
STS Staging server – A file server in the data center that is hosted in the OSWP data center.
DApp Department application.
OSWP Online single window portal
DServer Department server
CAF Common Application Form
RAD Rapid application development
Challenges faced before implementation -

Investors who decided to setup a business unit in West Bengal needed to get many approvals from different departments. This was a difficult task for citizens as they had to physically go to different departments, fill up the relevant application forms, pay the fees and apply for approvals.

Further, the approval process required the citizen to interact with more than one Government officials in each department who were operating as independent silos.

In many cases, an approval from a department would depend on the approval obtained from another department which may again depend on another. This required in-depth knowledge of the all the government procedures to start a business unit.

It was so complex that all needed approvals cannot be obtained from the government without the help of middlemen. This increased the cost & time of getting approvals and also subjected investors to untold hardships. There is no way to verify the authenticity of middlemen who were inevitable in getting approvals which significantly brought down the trust of investors on the government.

Process followed for implementation

The development and implementation of the OSWP that integrates data from 130+ services was innovative and seamless.

First an org structure was defined as given below

org-structure

The project steering committee consists of project visionaries, stakeholders and senior architects who visualized the solution for the problem faced by investors. They selected a robust Rapid Application Development platform with deep integration capabilities for achieving the goal.

Each project manager was given an independent project organization that consisted of high skilled people with varied specializations.

Analysts understood the requirement and documented them for developers. Developers created the solution on a RAD platform. The analysts created test cases along with the testers to test the product. This was done parallel to the app development to save time. A service along with the backend work flow was hence completed within 10 days and was ready for UAT.

UAT

This process was followed by a UAT along with the key users in each department. The changes that are required by the department are documented , made and moved to production server.

Even before the development was started, the development & test environment were setup and made. The progress was tracked by PM based the actual work deployed on the testing server and not just on status updates on excel sheets. This ensured that the project tracking was more real time and accurate.

The deployment and technical architecture are given in the next few sections.

About OSWP

Investors can sign up into this portal and are verified using an OTP that is sent to their email and mobile. Every investor is uniquely identified through their email address and a password. All user information is encrypted and stored in the database.

Each application form that is required to get approval of services provided by departments will be created as forms within the portal.

The forms are created on a Meta driven model. The data descriptors, validation rules and computation rules about every element in the form and the form layout are stored as part of Meta data within the database in an encrypted format.

The solution architecture of the OSWP will be as given below

oswp

The OSWP will manage the backend work flow related to departments. The status about the processing of the service will be intimated to the investor based on progress. In case a department has a software application already available, the OSWP portal will be post the service request into the department software application (named as department application in this document).

The CAF is a dynamic aggregation of forms related to getting approvals of multiple services that may be required to setup the desired business. The CAF is generated by dynamically aggregating the meta data of each selected form.

On submit of data in CAF, the data related to each department will be sent to the respective departments and updated into their application.

Subsequent processing for approvals will happen within applications in that department. Periodic status updates will be provided by the respective applications to the online singe window portal (OSWP). The portal will in turn provide the status updates to the investor through emails and the SMS.

Integration requires the creation of a seamless flow of data from the OSWP to a Department and from a Department to the OSWP. The traditional method of writing a bunch of web services on the OSWP side (to be consumed by the Department’s systems) and on the Department’s side (to be consumed by the OSWP system) can always be done but is not recommended under the circumstances where the application architecture does not follow a state of the art SOA. The reasons for this are twofold: firstly, writing web services correctly in a short time requires a certain level of skills for developers and vendors which may not be available with SIs/ IT vendors of all Departments and secondly, integration testing of web services typically requires a lot of time because of the time taken in designing and developing the exception handling process. That is why integration through the traditional method of writing web services typically requires 9 to 12 months. Integration was done therefore through the use of the tool Date Exchange (ADE) and Axpert Data Router (ADR) which would achieve integration at the data layer without web services.

For the purposes of integration, the departments are classified as below based on the sophistication of IT systems within a Department and its readiness for integration:

Type A departments - Some departments which already have applications (online systems) and which would be integrated with the OSWP are classified as Type A Departments.

Type B departments - The departments that do not have applications (currently manual) but which need to be integrated with OSWP by providing workflows on the OSWP are classified as Type B Departments.

Type C departments - Departments that offer stand alone online services but are not integrated with OSWP are classified as Type C departments. These backend work flow related to these services will be part of the OSWP and stored in the same database as the OSWP.

The workflow for a Type B Department will be built on OSWP and the services related to that Department will be naturally integrated with OSWP. Since machine to machine integration is relevant only for Type A Departments, only integration with Type A Department is given in the next section.

The OSWP was be implemented on a Rapid Application Development platform.

About The Tool -

Used tool is a RAD platform on which apps can be developed in 50% of the time, effort and skill required to build an app using traditional programming languages. Apps are developed on the tool by only defining the data structures, work flow and business rules on the fly using a simple and intuitive IDE. There is no need to write code in business or presentation layer.

Tool's architecture is complete SOA based and works on a Microsoft Dot net framework on a windows server. There is no need to write web services or REST services to create apps. Tool also comes with a data router and exchange apps that enables seamless and secure data exchange with other apps at the database level.

The tool comes with features for on the fly form, report and work flow definition and rendering. There is no need to code any of these. The data of forms are stored in standard RDBMS (Oracle, MYSQL, MS SQL).

The security standards that are followed for any distributed RDBMS based applications can be applied on the tool applications to ensure maximum security of data. A robust access control layer that comes along with the tool ensures maximum safety of data. This gives complete control to the app administrator to restrict access of data for relevant user groups.

Innovative aspects of the solutions -

OSWP involves creating of new apps and integrating with different kind of apps that run on different platforms on technologies. The rules in the citizen forms in each of the already online services had to be recreated in a short time in the OSWP. This kind of a work involved innovation in every task.

There are 130+ services that need to be integrated into a single platform. There human effort involved in this is high. A robust mix of domain experts, project leads, technical architects, high skilled developers and testers needed to be deployed to make this project a success. So, the team building activity was a challenge as it required specialists with different skills to be assembled under a strong leader. All had to be aligned to the vision within a short time to achieve the goal in a short time.

Nearly 60+ services were already available to citizens online through an application that is developed by different vendors. Each application was developed on different technologies (like IBM stack, Oracle apps, SAP, LAMP stack, dot net stack etc...). Many of these apps did not have the capability to publish API to be consumed by the OSWP. Even if some apps had such a capability it was a time intense task to publish those APIs. Integration with these apps has been achieved in the data layer.

Break through innovation -

The common application form (CAF) is the heart of this software application. The CAF is a dynamic aggregation of forms related to getting approvals of multiple services that may be required to setup the desired business. The CAF is generated by dynamically aggregating the Meta data of each selected form. On submit of data in CAF, the data related to each department will be sent to the respective departments and updated into their application. This is one of the biggest challenges in this project. All forms in this application had to be generated on the fly based on Meta data. Only then these forms could be aggregated on real time to provide the CAF. This project cannot be done without this capability.

Configurable web services layer integration helps developers to achieve integration with web services without writing code in the middle layer. Only the data marshalling and unmarshalling needs to be handled in the portal side which is done within the database. This speeds up web services level integration at the OSWP side as it does not require extensive coding.

Crucial innovation -

This project could not be completed without the secure data exchange router that was used to integrate apps that could not publish APIs. Apps can talk to each other through APIs. The apps developed in older technologies may not have the capability to publish APIs. The ones that were developed without a proper segregation of, presentation, business and data layer will require deep and elaborate coding to publish APIs.

This has been overcome with an innovative approach to do a data level integration through data exchange components named ADR and ADE. The ADR extracted modified or new data from database and converted them to data packets and stored them in a staging server. The ADE transported these packets to the relevant application though secure HTTPS. The ADR at the receiving end pushed the packets into the database without breaking the application as per the CERT-IN guidelines. This is described in more detail below.

Integration method for Type A Departments -
  • Staging server (file server)
  • HTTPS
CAF to department -
  • CAF is filled in OSWP by investor.
  • CAF is stored in db in OSWP.
  • The Axpert Data Router (ADR) is a windows program running in the OSWP server. This reads CAF from OSWP and creates encrypted packet and stores in local folder.
  • The Axpert Data Exchange (ADE) is a windows program running in the OSWP server. This reads packet from local folder and transports securely to staging server over HTTPS.
  • ADE at department server downloads from staging server to department server over HTTPS.
  • ADR at department server reads from local folder in department server and pushes into Database of Department.
    • Connects to department to the Tool's schema in the database at the department. ADR will not connect to the schema of the department application.
    • Inserts the data from CAF packet into db tables in Tool's schema using SQL Insert statements.
    • DB triggers in Tool's schema will execute a stored procedure in the schema of the department application. This stored procedure will insert the data from Tool's schema into relevant db tables in the schema of department application.
    • Updates the status into table in Tool's schema. In case of errors, these are sent to OSWP.
    • ADR can be granted execute access to execute a set of stored procedures only. These stored procedures will read or write into the database tables of the department application. No direct table access need to be granted for ADR. This will ensure complete security as per the guidelines provided by CERT-In.

Exceptions are accumulated in OSWP which can be monitored and corrected by a central support team.

Status updates from department -

The department app is assumed to writing status updates into a table. A trigger will be written in such tables to update the status against CAF No. All status updates will be aggregated into the CAFStatus table.

  • The department application will be updating the status of an application into its db tables. Triggers will be written and attached to those db tables in department application schema. These triggers will write the change in status into tables in Tool's schema.
  • ADR at department server will read new data from CAFStatus table in Tool's schema, creates an encrypted packet and stores in local folder.
  • ADE at department server reads the from local folder and uploads to staging server over HTTPS.
  • ADE at OSWP server downloads packets from staging server.
  • ADR at OSWP server will read from file and write into OSWP database.
Safe and secure data exchage -

The above architecture is a safe and secure architecture for the following reasons:

  • The transportation layer is managed by ADE and does not have access to the database.
  • The transportation layer works on secure HTTP.
  • Only the ADR has access to the database and this is running within the Database server of the application and within the DMZ.
  • Database connections are not opened over the internet.
  • Database connections are not opened to HTTP requests.
  • Database access passwords can be provided by the department admin staff through a configuration module in ADR. This need not be shared with other people.
  • The testing scripts for testing if valid data is pushed into Database by ADR will be provided by the individual departments and hence only valid data will be posted in department application.
  • No IP needs to be exposed to the internet to exchange data. Hence, this is the safest way of data exchange between two remote applications.
  • The data center need to provide only file upload and file download access from to the staging server.

Hence the above architecture conforms to the industry standard security practices to ensure data security and access control. This architecture rules out any danger fromcross site scripting, SQL injection, identity theft, network eavesdropping& unauthorized access.

safeguards to ensure securty at departments -

The following measures are being taken as per the CERT-IN recommendations.

  • ADR connects only to the Tool's schema and does not need connection to the department app schema.
  • The department app need to provide permission to execute a stored procedure that will insert records into the form tables with data stored in the Tool's schema. There is no need to provide direct read or write access to db tables. This is designed as per the CERT-IN recommendations to ensure high level of security.
  • The department need not open up its port or publish its IP over the internet. ADR is a windows desktop program that will be run within the firewall.
  • It needs to only allow file upload and download to the staging server which is hosted in the state data center.
  • The department will also have to allow ADR to execute a web service that is hosted in the SDC over a secure HTTPS.
About security model, authentication and authorization

When you create systems that store and retrieve data, it is important to protect the data from unauthorized use, disclosure, modification or destruction. Ensuring that users have the proper authority to see the data, create new data, or update existing data is an important aspect of application development. Do all users need the same level of access to the data and to the functions provided by your applications? Are there subsets of users that need access to privileged functions? Are some data restricted to certain classes of users? The answers to questions like these help provide the basis for the security requirements for your application.

Tool includes a powerful and flexible role-based security model to protect your data according to your application security requirements. There is always a trade-off between security and usability. When a system has no security, then it is open to malicious or un-malicious unauthorized access. When a system is too tightly secured, it might become difficult to use successfully. Before implementing your application security model, it is important to understand the core concepts and features in the Tool's security model. This section provides the data security model and includes the following sections:

  • Authentication and access control
  • Authorization
  • Administration
Authentication and Access Control

Authentication is the process of verifying user credentials for a named user. Authentication makes sure you are who you say you are. Users are typically authenticated with a username and password. Authentication verifies user credentials and associates an application session with the authenticated user. Every request to Tool is issued from an authenticated user. Authentication, by itself, does not grant access or authority to perform specific actions. Authentication by username and password is one of the methods. You might grant access to users who are authenticated through a single sign in (managed by ADS or LDAP). This may also be integrated with Aadhar database to ensure high levels of security.

The passwords that are defined in Tool are encrypted and stored using salted MD5 algorithms. These are secure as the salt key is generated randomly using public & private keys. The system will force users to change their passwords at defined intervals. The system will also force users to provide strong passwords.

Authorization -

Authorization provides the mechanism to control data access, For an authenticated user, authorization determines what you are allowed to do. For example, authorization is what allows the access to menu options, buttons or functions in the application. Using authorization users or group of users may be restricted access to classified data.

Administration -

Administration is the process of defining, configuring, and managing the security objects, such as users, roles and privileges that implement your security policies. Privileges are is identified by a unique name and assigned access to the elements in the application like menu items, web services, buttons and links through which tasks are done or data is viewed.

The Tool's Server security model is flexible and enables you to set up application security with the level of granularity needed by your security requirements.

Role-Based Security Model (Authorization) -

Roles are the central point of authorization in the Tool's security model. Privileges, users, responsibilities and permissions all relate to roles.

role-based

A set of privileges is assigned to a role. A user may be assigned one or more roles. These can set through an intuitive user interface to the administrator to effectively manage the permissions and authority for users.

Element level security -

When a privilege is assigned to a role, it may be assigned every data element in a form or report. The data element could be an input field, a button or a hyperlink. The privilege may be extended to subsets of data by defining data filters and assigning privileges on the dataset.

Deployment strategy

The picture below shows the deployment architecture of OSWP in the data center.

EODB

Each web server has a fail over server to manage effective DR. This should be configured in Active-Active mode.

One exchange box should be deployed in the OSWP portal to manage exchange of data along with departments that have their own application.

In case of departments that have their own applications and which need data level integration through ADR an exchange box is to be deployed within its firewall.

Pre And Post Deployment Scenarios -
Before OSWP
oswp-bfr
After OSWP
oswp-bfr

The picture above depicts the change after implementing the OSWP. As evident from the picture, it brought out the following benefits to the citizens

  • The time required to get approvals has been reduced from months to a few weeks.
  • Effectively avoided the need for middle men.
  • Investors need not interact physically with multiple departments.
  • Payments could be made online as a single payment for all the approvals across departments.
  • Online status updates kept the investors informed about the progress.
  • Increased transparency and ease of doing business.
Potential of replicability -

The potential to replicate to various other state governments are high based on the following

  • It has generalized components to connect to applications across platforms. These components only need to be configured in other scenarios and there is no need to code it again.
  • The CAF will work on any form and the services related to any state government can be rendered as a CAF. This module does not need any rewriting.
  • The architecture is scalable as more servers can be added if the demand either on the citizen side or the department side increases. The basic platform can also be configured to work with in memory databases (like REDIS/Memcached, state of art in memory databases) and hence can improve performance steeply.
  • This is highly secure architecture as it confirms to all CERT-IN standards. Internet facing servers can be isolated from servers that are used within intranet.
  • The basic platform ships with report writing capabilities and hence subsequent MIS reporting can be made with lesser effort.
  • Changes can be made to forms and reports without having to change the code. These are achieved only by changing the meta data. Hence, these changes need not require security certification every time a change is made.
Key enabling factors for Innovative approach of DB level Integration & use of RAD Platform for EODB
  • For ease of Doing Business in a state, more than 100 Services were required to develop and out of this 70+ services were supposed to integrate for a dynamic Composite Application Form (CAF). To achieve this impossible task within a short time span of 4 Months for an innovative approach of Database level Integration.
  • As a result the innovative approach of Database layer integration has been used to integrated all the services , resulting in meta-data driven CAF. Flow of data from the CAF to the different applications & vice versa is being done through Data Router & Data Exchanger & Stored Procedure.

Centralized e-Office

eOffice implementation in Government of West Bengal

The Lite version of eOffice Product Suite of National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been implemented by NIC in January 2018 in all 50 secretariat departments of Government of West Bengal under the leadership of PAR and eGovernance Department. Necessary training, handholding, deployment, maintenance, upgradation are being done by NIC. More than 1200 master trainers have been trained by NIC during the period Oct’2017 to Dec’2017 and more than 4500 employees have been made onboard by NIC as on 2nd Jan, 2018. As on 29th Jan 2018, more than 15000 eFiles have been created using eOffice.

WTL alongside WBSWAN and WBSDC have been entrusted for establishment of necessary hardware infrastructure and network across the state for implementing eOffice. Necessary cloud infrastructure has been provided by WBSDC for hosting eOffice application of NIC. WBSWAN has spread the WBSWAN network to all the 50 departments for accessing eOffice application. WTL has provided necessary hardware like PC, Scanner, printers etc to all the departments. For day-to-day handholding support, Information Technology & Electronics department entrusted WTL for engaging SSP (Software Support Professional) for all 50 departments. WTL has conducted the examination, interview and other procedures for selection of suitable candidates in association with NIC and SeMT. After training from NIC, SSPs are placed by Information Technology & Electronics department to respective departments. WBSWAN has established a new dedicated 100 Mbps direct connectivity from Nabanna to WBSDC for providing more bandwidth for the offices at Nabanna. WBSWAN has also established/upgraded 45 Mbps WAN connectivity to major office buildings like Bikash Bhavan, New Secretariat Building, etc. SMS gateway has been provided by WTL for alert generation from eOffice. WTL may grant privileges to the senior officers of the governments to access e-office from public network over VPN.

Commercial Taxes

Commercial Taxes (CT) is a Mission Mode Project under Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The project aims at creation of a national infrastructure for facilitating inter-state trade, ensuring uniformity and standards in Commercial Tax administration and enabling free exchange of information. Technology has emerged as a key element of citizen service delivery and identification of various e-Governance initiatives that can alter the way services are delivered has been the cornerstone of CT-MMP. CT-MMP intends to transform key processes leading to improved service delivery and build capacities among all the stakeholders to enable people delivering the services to perform better.

Directorate of Commercial Taxes, GoWB has implemented the e-governance application for commercial tax related services in West Bengal. Intranet of the CT-MMP application is hosted at SDC. The application is being expensively used by business units in the State for various services including online registration under VAT and CST Acts, demat registration certificate, eFiling of returns, ePayment through Bank portal, demat CST forms, transit declaration and waybill generation, online refund through ECS, eApplication for IPA, eGrievance and eAnti-evasion etc.

URL: http://wbcomtax.nic.in

Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems

Crime and Criminal Tracking & Network System (CCTNS) is a Mission Mode Project conceptualized and sponsored by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) towards enhancing outcomes in Crime Investigation and Criminals Tracking; and in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of police departments in all States. It is proposed to achieve this through the adoption of the principles of e-Governance and creating a nationwide, networked infrastructure for supporting an ICT enabled policing system.

Department of Home, GoWB is implementing the project in the State. The project is envisaged to cover 486 Police Stations & 197 Higher Offices in the State. CCTNS application and server-side infrastructure has already been hosted at SDC. The application is intended to electronically deliver services including complaints, status enquiry, online verification services, details of stolen/recovered vehicles and firearms and missing person report etc.

e-Governance initiatives in Land & Land Records

The National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP) is a mission mode project under Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, GOI launched in August 2008, aimed to modernize management of land records, minimize scope of land/property disputes, enhance transparency in the land records maintenance system, and facilitate moving eventually towards guaranteed conclusive titles to immovable properties in the country. The major components of the programme are computerization of all land records including mutations, digitization of maps and integration of textual and spatial data, survey/re-survey and updation of all survey and settlement records including creation of original cadastral records wherever necessary, computerization of registration and its integration with the land records maintenance system, development of core Geospatial Information System (GIS) and capacity building.

Land and Land Reforms (L&LR) department is the nodal department for NLRMP project in the State. Under NLRMP, complete convergence of Registration and Mutation services will take place. For this purpose, connectivity between all Registration and L&LR offices is being established over WBSWAN.

e-Governance Initiatives in Panchayats (e-Panchayats)

e-Panchayat is a mission mode project being implemented by P&RD Department in the State. Under the project, a Gram Panchayat Management System (GPMS) portal has been implemented across the State. A centralized database of rural households is also being maintained and a pension disbursement system is also in place under the project.

URL: http://wbprdgpms.in/

e-Governance Initiatives in Municipalities ( e-Municipalities)

Government of West Bengal and DFID in 1999, agreed to collaborate on the development of the "Kolkata Urban Services for the Poor" (KUSP) programme aimed at improving urban planning and governance; access to basic services for the poor and promoting economic growth in the KMA (40 ULBs under KMA). The project is aimed to support for provision of infrastructure in slums, fill critical infrastructure gaps at the town level and in some cases also support infrastructure that serve two or more municipalities. In addition, support for the process of economic visioning and planning involving the formal and informal business sectors and also capacity building of municipalities and State level agencies is also envisaged in the project.

The KUSP application (e-Municipality) being implemented in the ULBs (Urban Local body or Municipality) consists of electronic delivery of various citizen services including e-Payment, Birth and Death certificate, Calculation and payment of property tax, Trade license, Building approvals, Utility bill payments and Grievance handling etc.

e-Governance Initiatives in Agriculture

AGRISNET is a Mission Mode Project under Department of Agriculture & Co-operation, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI which was launched as a component of a Central Sector Scheme titled, Strengthening / Promoting Agricultural Informatics & Communications. AGRISNET portal shall provide relevant information and services to the farming community and private sector through the use of information and communication technologies, to supplement the existing delivery channels provided for by the department.

The KUSP application (e-Municipality) being implemented in the ULBs (Urban Local body or Municipality) consists of electronic delivery of various citizen services including e-Payment, Birth and Death certificate, Calculation and payment of property tax, Trade license, Building approvals, Utility bill payments and Grievance handling etc.

Department of Agriculture, GoWB has initiated the project in the State with the following service objectives:

  • Generation of Soil Health Card [SHC]
  • Registration / Authorization Certificate of Manufacturers & Dealers of Fertilizers and Manures) [FERTREG]
  • Information System on Quality Control of Fertilizers [FERTQC]
  • Registration of Seed Certification Agencies [AGENCYREG]
  • Seed Certification Information System [SEEDCERT]
  • Seed Testing Information System [SEEDTEST]
  • Seed Licensing Information System [SEEDLIC]
  • Pesticide License Issuance System [PESTLIC]
  • Pesticide Testing Information System [PESTTEST]

Project also consists of development of a Farmers Advisory System and delivery of e-service on Fertiliser Recommendation on parameters like Block, Mouza, Crop and Season against soil test parameters of the locality. The delivery of e-Services will be through Internet access (through www.wbagrisnet.gov.in) as well as through SMS. Other components of the project include:

  • Development of a AGRI-MET advisory system
  • Creation of ICT Infrastructure in the Department and field-level offices
  • Capacity Building of the Officials of the Department
URL: http://wbagrisnet.gov.in/

Road Transport

VAHAN (Vehicle Registration System) is a mission mode project under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, GOI aimed at creating national register for registered vehicles in the country. The application has been designed and developed by NIC.

The Transport department, GoWB has implemented the VAHAN project with e-services application including online vehicle tax payment by citizens and Vehicle registration (new, transfer of ownership, address change, NOC, duplicate RC etc.). The application has gone live for the citizens and is being used by the department extensively for these services.

URL: https://vahan.wb.nic.in

Land Records (Ph-I): BHUCHITRA

Under Land Records I Mission Mode Project, digitization of all land records including plot information and maps was implemented under Bhuchitra application in the State. Bhuchitra application was designed and developed by NIC. Since June, 2010 all service requests are being processed largely electronically though not in end to end online mode. Following services are being provided through the application:

  • Mutation/ Record of Right
  • Registration
  • Conversion
  • certified copy of RoR
  • Plot Information
URL: http://banglarbhumi.gov.in:8080/LRWEB/