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India's first computerised village council in Kerala
By Sanu George, Indo-Asian News Service
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 14 (IANS) A Kerala village is all set to create a record -- as the first to have a fully computerised grassroots administration in India.
The Vellanad 'gram panchayat', or village council, 20 km south of this city, will be declared fully computerised Wednesday by state IT Minister P.K. Kunjalikutty.
The Information Kerala Mission (IKM), a project of the state-owned autonomous institution, Centre for Development of Imaging Technology, took up the computerisation of Vellanad.
The entire cost of computerisation came to Rs.600,000. "It took IKM almost a year to fully computerise the village council," said the Local Self-Government Minister Cherkalam Abdullah at a news conference here Tuesday.
"As a result, certificates for deaths, births, marriages and taxes will be ready for villagers in a matter of minutes."
IKM has developed 12 different packages for application at the village level.
A survey of the socio-economic status of villagers, a databank on the qualifications of the unemployed in the area and the financial position of the administration will be among information now available at the click of a mouse.
Staff at Vellanad has undergone two computer-training programmes, and a final one is scheduled to commence on January 20.
IKM is hoping that the forthcoming Global Investors Meet on January 18-19 will help spot a suitable investor to take up computerisation of all 1,214 local bodies in the state.
Among the biggest project proposals of the local self-government ministry is one worth Rs.7.5 billion that is getting ready to be showcased at the meet.
--Indo-Asian News Service
On Tue, 2003-01-14 at 23:53, Frederick Noronha wrote:
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The Information Kerala Mission (IKM), a project of the state-owned autonomous institution, Centre for Development of Imaging Technology, took up the computerisation of Vellanad.
"As a result, certificates for deaths, births, marriages and taxes will be ready for villagers in a matter of minutes."
IKM has developed 12 different packages for application at the village level.
A survey of the socio-economic status of villagers, a databank on the qualifications of the unemployed in the area and the financial position of the administration will be among information now available at the click of a mouse.
I quote a paragraph from page linking to keralaonline story at .http://www.keralaonline.com/storydisplay.asp?folder=Tech&file=8_279.xml 'kerala overlooking local efforts in favour of Windows?' "The State Government may be overlooking indigenous Free Software-based Malayalam desktop development initiatives, while going the whole hog for Microsoft and its localised Windows XP."
..... "What has unnerved supporters of Free/ Swatantra Software is that the Information Kerala Mission (IKM), which is leading the e-governance initiatives in the State's local bodies, is pegging for Microsoft when there is a cost-effective indigenously-developed solution available."
Yes, If we follow IKM as our role model for e- governance, we are left with e-poverty only.
The common man pay the tax, The Govt. pay that to Microsoft & Intel, and at the click of a mouse our POOR man get the Tax bill and his DEATH certificate...
Great Grass root Administration!!!
Staff at Vellanad has undergone two computer-training programmes, and a final one is scheduled to commence on January 20.
By Intel and Microsoft.. right??
Fred, Have you relayed this across the globe ? I had a few suggestions.
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 14 (IANS) A Kerala village is all set to create a record -- as the first to have a fully computerised grassroots administration in India.
Correction I ..the first to have a fully Microsoft-only computerised grassroots...
The entire cost of computerisation came to Rs.600,000. "It took IKM almost
Correction II .. cost of computerisation came to Rs 600,000, if one writes off the overhead development costs, that stands around Rs 500,000,000 as on date.
a year to fully computerise the village council," said the Local
Correction III .. computerise the village council, forgetting the five years for developing the Microsoft-only software..
Among the biggest project proposals of the local self-government ministry is one worth Rs.7.5 billion that is getting ready to be showcased at the meet.
Correction IV .. worth Rs 7.5 billion (that would inevitably be recovered from the common citizens of Kerala, within the life-period of the software licenses and recovery repeated during every renewal thereafter, the decision of which is binding on the state of Kerala over which its local governments shall have no say) that is getting ...
--Indo-Asian News Service
Correction V ..--Indo-Asian-Microsoft-IKM News Service
Perhaps that would have been a more honest broadcast. CK Raju
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CK Raju -
Frederick Noronha -
P. Sugathan