Telangana is one of the leading states in India for implementing e-governance projects. There is a plethora of initiatives rolled out for citizen empowerment as well as the smooth running of the various government departments in the state. To know more, Moumita Deb Choudhury of Express Computer had a conversation with G T Venkateshwar Rao, Commissioner, ESD, ITE&C Department, Govt of Telangana
How is Telangana Government utilising IT to revolutionise the way citizen services are being delivered?
Telangana Government has always been a frontrunner with respect to the utilisation of IT for delivery of citizen services, through many channels. The majority of which is through MeeSeva centres, web based MeeSeva and an app based channel called T App Folio.
For delivering e-governance through a web based platform, MeeSeva portal currently boasts of over 550 services in its platform and is one of the most widely used online G2C service delivery platform in the country. MeeSeva centres are a frontend point of the MeeSeva platform itself and there are around 4500 centres scattered across Telangana. These are being governed majorly by Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) and provide an alternative to rural citizens not well versed in the usage of web based applications.
M-governance delivered through an App called T App Folio, is a recent release of the Telangana Government and aims to radicalise how services are being delivered in the state. With the advent of smartphones in India and it’s wide availability, it was deemed necessary to create an app based service platform which will act as an anytime, anywhere solution to G2C service delivery. It currently hosts around 210+ services and is in a process of rapid expansion as well.
T Wallet, is a digital wallet which citizens can use to make payments for both government and private transactions to avail services. Citizens can also use T Wallet to transfer funds to bank accounts through IMPS. As financial inclusion of rural population was the primary focus of T Wallet, it has been made available in three languages i.e. English, Telugu and Urdu.
What progress have you seen in the past years for e-governance?
The progress we have witnessed over the years with e-governance include increased adoption of emerging technologies in citizen service delivery by different departments; increased appreciation of e-governance and m-governance initiatives by government departments; increased citizen awareness and adoption about ICT initiatives; and the department’s willingness to revamp old service flows for ICT based better ones – PLCS, RTDAI, etc.
Please discuss some of the major initiatives undertaken for the benefit of the citizens?
Apart from MeeSeva, T App Folio, T Wallet, one the major initiatives is Hyderabad City Wi-Fi Project, for which a pilot has been launched to provide Wi-Fi connectivity at 200 public locations with three service providers. Over 3,000 such locations have been identified and currently, there are about 2,500 locations which have active Wi-Fi connectivity.
Then there is transport department M-Wallet called RTA M-Wallet which has been developed to store statutory documents like registration certificate, driving license, etc., in digital form. The centralised data architecture of the Transport Department is utilised to fetch the details of documents on the smartphone. The app is free to download and use. Citizen specific documents are displayed on any mobile using the login facility. The app helps the enforcing authority for identification of the document’s genuineness and provides ease to the citizens during on-road checking. With 20 lakh downloads, this is one of the highest downloaded government apps.
How and in what way are you adopting next level technologies like, cloud, IoT, blockchain and AI?
The Real Time Digital Authentication of Identity (RTDAI) involves the usage of AI, ML, DL and big data. The RTDAI requires a three-factor authentication system to be in place for a citizen be completely authenticated and have his identity verified. This three factor system includes using machine learning based demographic check, a Deep Learning based photo comparison check and an artificial intelligence engine based liveness check. This system of RTDAI has multiple potential use cases in citizen service delivery and the first successfully tested use case was that of authenticating pensioners for their life certificate.
Pensioners can submit their life certificate through their smartphone from their home without visiting any office to verify their aliveness and authenticate their demographics, RTDAI lets them complete this entire process through T App Folio’s PLCS module itself. This has drastically increased citizen convenience and is one of the first successfully tested use cases of RTDAI. 10 per cent of the pensioners have used this system for submitting annual life certificates this year. This is first of its kind solution in the country and perhaps in the world.
The pilot on using blockchain in registration is implemented in coordination with CDAC. A blockchain based application in chit-fund business is launched, while the use of blockchain in vehicle registration and in educational certificates is being explored.
Plans are also underway of using other emerging technologies like big data, drones, IoT, cloud, etc., in a big way.
What are your plans for the coming five years?
Telangana is constantly looking to explore and identify new and emerging technologies and their potential use cases in effective governance. With regards to that and in line with current trends, there are some potential initiatives that the government is exploring, which includes document less governance- for minimising the use of paper in all aspects of governance. Implementation of E-Office
in government offices.We look to boost up M-Governance to provision all government services over mobile apps. Also, expanding the scope of T App Folio with all government services and mobile apps being seamlessly integrated.There are plans to use big data in all government departments with the objectives of revenue augmentation; cost rationalisation; and smart governance.
Data driven governance is another focus to provide dashboards for every government department to enable decision makers to make informed decisions. Also, intensive use of data analytics in improving the service delivery. The focus is on using emerging technologies like AL, ML, DL for the creation of effective facial authentication technology for effective delivery of government services; use AI in automating and augmenting internal processes within departments and leverage ML and DL for demographic authentication and verification.
Do you see any challenges in adopting cutting edge technologies?
There are certain challenges like citizen adoption, acceptance and awareness; educating concerned departments about the advantages of e-governance and it’s further implementation; availability of service providers to actually provide effective solutions. Since some of these emerging technologies have not yet been implemented on a large scale, the cost associated with them is high. When it comes to implementation, since the technologies being used in creating these services have not fully matured yet, they come with a certain degree of uncertainty and technical challenges. Owing to this, departments could still be reluctant in their adoption.
