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The Information Kerala Mission (IKM), established in June 1999, for computerising the local bodies in the state had been pursuing one among the most ambitious e-governance programmes in the country. Visualised as a sequel to the decentralised plan campaign which has been acclaimed as one of the most deep-rooted and extensive initiatives in strengthening grassroots' level democratisation, the Mission during its initial phase, had put in considerable efforts in building up its perspectives and strategies. The Mission has succeeded in establishing a small and dedicated interdisciplinary team of professionals who have trained themselves in various aspects of Information Communication Technology (ICT) implementation and local body systems. This team has gone a long way in building and customising a few software applications addressing various facets of governance in local self government institutions; creating content for training the stakeholders in operationalising these applications; and in drawing up a set of best practices for replicable and improvisable implementation through intensively planned pilots. In spite of these preparations, replication of the pilot has been delayed inordinately because of hold-ups in decision making on the final roll out. Of late, a strategy for outsourced implementation with private - public - participation (PPP) has been mooted, the ins and outs of which are being worked out. A brief overview of the activities undertaken by the Mission after September 2000 is attempted in this document.

Context- Till September 2000

By September 2000, the Mission had equipped itself with the vital endowments to undertake a pilot of the first phase of IKM implementation. The Mission had initiated the rollout of two major software applications - Sulekha for plan monitoring and Sevana for pensions, social welfare schemes, birth, death and marriage registrations - in five grama panchayats in Thiruvananthapuram District on a pilot basis, to test the feasibility and replicability of its holistic implementation strategy. This pilot has been immensely instrumental in fine tuning the software applications, the technical support strategy, the human resource management and system integration approaches. Computerisation of urban local bodies had not, however, been initiated since a focus on urban local body systems had not figured in the earlier set priorities of the Mission.

The starting point of the Mission's programme was an extensive study of the local body systems which helped it formulate an elaborate framework encompassing seven configurations namely plan monitoring systems, systems for accounting and financial management, revenue systems, systems for public services, establishment and general administration systems, statutory systems for local governance and systems for public works and procurement. The systems study was put together from a perspective of administrative reforms and business process reengineering which are regarded as the inevitable prerequisites for a result oriented e-governance initiative. This was in fact a natural consequence of the clarity of vision ingrained in the mass based and result oriented decentralisation programme which set in motion the Mission.

Development of the first versions of Sulekha and Sevana had been completed following the principles of participatory software development which meant intense interaction, including vetting of the prototype itself, by a wide ranging cross-section of the personnel actually involved in operations (contrary to an elitist perspective of fixing software requirement specifications and working out a pure technology solution from a programmer's view point), thereby ensuring complete functionality of the applications. Rigorous field-testing of Sulekha by compiling plan data for the period 1998- 2000 through a pain staking field exercise in all the grama panchayats in Thiruvananthapuram District also had been completed, and the field-testing had been initiated for Sevana.

The field-testing of IKM applications as well as the pilots has reinforced IKM's system understanding which is plainly outlined in the system study document and reproduced below. Crippled with inadequately trained staff and archaic office systems, the administrative machinery is finding it difficult to implement the people's plan programme as well as to open out to the common man. A cursory glance at the institutional mechanisms available in the Panchayat reveals the following, as recorded starkly in the 'Report of the Committee on Decentralisation', "Files are not properly kept, registers are not up to date and transactions are often elaborated without reasoning. A variety of reasons have contributed to this state of affairs - pressure of work, imprecise instructions from above, untrained staff, ineffective supervision, impractical procedures and corrupt intentions." Therefore an all-inclusive strategy of e-governance focussing on knocking down redundant and inadequate systems had to be taken up simultaneously with innovative systems building. Directing change within a dynamically evolving systems framework was by no means a trivial task.

Two new design models for application development had come to light from the initial field exercises, namely a citizens' database and an integrated project management framework. However these could flourish to the level of being incorporated into full-fledged applications only years later, when the implementation of other applications could be completed in tandem with Sevana and Sulekha in Vellanad grama panchayat.

Training had always been at the central stage in the mission activities right from its inception. Following the principles of participatory empowerment effectively and extensively employed in the campaign for decentralisation, a life related, user centred and activity based pedagogy was envisioned and tried out. Lines of attack of demystifying ICTs on the one hand and of positioning the applications within an overall systems framework on the other were the essential components of this pedagogy. Demystification of technology would tremendously improve the confidence of the trainee and improve the user interaction substantially, whereas a systems approach would put in place the change management perspective of the applications. A few training programmes for Senior Technical Assistants and the Convenors of the Block Level Expert Committees had also been conducted.

With regard to rollout, detailed specifications for the purchase of hardware and software were finalised and the Government had started off with a tender process for procurement, involving only public sector companies. The cabinet meeting held on 11-10-2000 had approved the proposals and accorded administrative sanction to the procurement process. However, the Government later on decided to cancel the limited tender and go for a public tender process in December 2000 so as to launch the rollout towards the end of the financial year.

IKM had selected substantial manpower in anticipation of the massive pre-processing of legacy data and the various preparatory activities, including the completion of site preparation. Data Mechanic Trainees to be deployed at the grama panchayats, district panchayats and urban local bodies; Senior Technical Assistants/Technical Assistants at the block panchayat; Master Trainers/Trainers for each district training centres, and Assistant Mission Co-ordinators to co-ordinate the activities at the district level were selected. Regional Mission Co-ordinators to monitor the activities at the regional level had also been identified.

Efforts were also initiated to establish a network of training and support linking Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to help IKM handle the scale and extent of the implementation. A chain of district training centres identified from among proactive engineering colleges, polytechnics and non-governmental organisations was sought to be established. Appraisal of candidate institutions was completed and preferable ones were short-listed. An extensive study of SME's and freelance professionals who could be associated with IKM in handling local level training, maintenance and technical support, supply of consumables and services, was carried out and a database created. Profiling of elected representatives in local bodies and local body staff revealed the challenges involved, given their wide ranging age profile and skills matrix. These studies reinforced the apprehensions about the serious demand - supply gaps in services at the local level, which could unfold while undertaking such massive ICT endeavours.

The initiative of the State Election Commission to organise a computerised consolidation of results of elections to the local bodies in 2000 September (Kerala Panchayat Nagarapalika Election) was a trial of technological and logistics capabilities of the Mission. The programme, which was termed as 'Operation Information Kerala', required large scale deployment of machines and technical personnel in all the counting centres throughout the state for its successful execution. The operations involved data acquisition, online processing, and web-based publication of results. This manoeuvre had tremendous impact on the team as it had toughened the faculties of the team and opened up new vistas, particularly to explore the issues on connectivity, real life deployment of software applications, undertaking rapid training programmes and establishing an organisation for providing hardware support in a state-wide programme. Consolidation of data transferred from various destinations sprawling all over the state, including remote areas, had brought to surface a variety of issues relating to the state information infrastructure as well as the serious imbalances existing at the district level.

Since September 2000

The inadequacies identified through the enterprise studies and selection process of professionals had posed serious doubts about the practicality of executing a roll out programme by directly deploying the applications. The holistic implementation strategy and linkages with administrative reforms and process improvements visualised by IKM necessitated substantial efforts in human resource development and change management in LSGI institutions as a pre-qualification to rollout and later, all along the implementation phase. This would be to a greater extent dependent on the stakeholder support that the Mission could garner and the linkages were explicit in the campaign environment of the decentralisation programme. Since the campaign phase was receding and an institutional phase was forth coming, an implementation plan involving a network of large number of small and medium players providing local services in training and technical support synergised with a core team of IKM was unlikely to take off, given the service demand and supply scenario, as well as the ambience emerging. Such a plan would invariably require extensive strengthening of the core team which was also unlikely, especially since the project had been a non-starter.

It was at this juncture, that the possibility of an outsourced implementation was explored. The original vision of IKM itself had envisaged outsourcing components in setting up ward level kiosks as well as legacy data processing, training and handholding. In legacy data processing, training and handholding, there was a supporting arm from IKM which would recede in a time bound manner. The Kiosk component was visualized fully in an entrepreneur mode. The concept of outsourcing infrastructural and service projects was in the mean time gaining currency in local self government. In ICT projects within the state as well as outside, outsourcing was the imperative paradigm. It was after giving due consideration to these aspects that the methodology of implementation was reworked involving a major private partner in the implementation. The tasks of supply, installation, networking, commissioning, maintenance of the hardware and commercial-off-the-shelf software, application software support, training of personnel, handholding, building up systems for operation including data base administration, system administration, running the district level help desks and directing application support issues to the state level help desk would now be handled by the vendor under the control of IKM which would function as the Application Service Provider (ASP). A broad outline for PPP implementation in a Build-Operate-Lease-Transfer mode (BOLT) was conceived to manage the outsourced components on a cost for service basis. Executing a project in an outsourced mode is even trickier than a direct implementation since accountability levels get escalated considerably with the entry of an external entity. Lot of emphasis would have to be there on contracts, agreements, and technical documentation and the flexibilities of an action research based approach could be totally absent. The significant advantage would be that efforts could be much more focussed and result oriented. The challenge is to gear up systems in the Mission team professionally to address the new needs.

Even as the paradigm of implementation was undergoing a major swing, the activities of the IKM were consolidating and stabilising. A few major milestones were covered during the period, which has on the one hand boosted the morale of the team and has infused in the Mission a mood of confidence and a sense of accomplishment and improved the public perception and acceptance of the mission on the other.

Activities

Capitalising on the initial efforts in training, training activities in IKM has advanced systematically and a sizeable quantum of content has been shaped up which includes text books, manuals, hand books, exercise books, and computer based training materials. A system of trainee and trainer evaluation has been also established. Efforts were made to explore institutional tie ups and to locate external resource persons to handle the content developed by the Mission so that volumes in delivery could be achieved and sustained. A major constraint had been the non availability of quality infrastructure for running the training sessions. The cross-section of trainees had been varied, ranging from the officials of the District Planning Offices, staff in corporations, municipalities, Directorate of Panchayats, Urban Affairs Directorate and the grama panchayats where the pilots have been initiated. The team is well set to carry out a clear line of attack for packaging training kits incorporating the overall schema, base content, enrichment material, refresher gist, evaluation content and a trainer's reference book.

The plan monitoring system - Sulekha - application has undergone several version changes, in order to contain the changes in business logic as well as to accommodate the wide-ranging variations in book keeping and project management practices. The Mission has already employed the application for consolidation of the Ninth Plan data of the local bodies in Thiruvananthapuram District, Tenth Plan proposals at Vellanad and other pilot rollout panchayats and quite recently consolidation of the Ninth Plan expenditure data and the Tenth Plan formulation data for all the thousand two hundred and fifteen (1215) local bodies in the state. The three-tier application architecture incorporating the State Planning Board (SPB) module, the District Planning Office (DPO) module and the local self government institution module (LB) was successfully tested out. The SPB module handled aggregate reports and downward transmission of changes in business rules, where as the DPO module handled district level consolidation of LB level data after authorising the transmissions. The LB module handled data entry, validations and upward transmission after obtaining authorisation from the DPO.

The new versions developed in view of the changes have focussed mainly on the revised guidelines stipulated by the State Planning Board with the onset of the Tenth Five Year Plan and also in incorporating additional validations for ensuring at least minimum quality levels. Extensive efforts have gone into standardisation of the attributes of the physical targets envisaged by the local bodies in projects and to incorporate the components of project accounting and monitoring at the formulation stage itself.

The new version was subject to a process of rigorous field testing when the application was installed in 45 locations and was used for the data entry, correction and verification of 1,48,872 projects by 390 data entry operators and over 1600 local body personnel as a part of the consolidation of plan data during January-March 2003. Reports for six districts have already been compiled and the rest are underway. A closer look at the data reveals major problems in recording physical targets, making rough cost estimates of projects, assigning micro sector codes to projects etc. Discrepancies in recording the opening balance component from spill over projects in the plan outlay is still unresolved and this has created issues in tallying grant-in-aid figures allocated to local bodies (as per the Annexure IV of the state budget document) with the figures in their respective plan documents. The consolidation of Ninth Plan expenditure also shows inconsistencies in the figures on expenditure and budget. It is now sought to create an 'inadequacies report' for every local body and get it circulated to the local body concerned for error correction thereby ensuring cleaning up and finalisation of the collected plan data. Such a feedback system for revalidation could tremendously improve the reporting systems.

The major weaknesses of the present version of Sulekha are: (i) It does not capture the various processes in the project life cycle prior to formal approval of the project by the Panchayat Committee (ii) it does not reflect the primary accounting transactions relating to the project and relies on expenditure reports (iii) The application doesn't have a workflow interface. These issues are sought to be addressed in the subsequent versions. However the foremost issue is that the present systems in the local body are not geared up to utilise even a minute fraction of the available functionality and whatever data that is right now available is not up to the mark. The current task is to try and improve the quality of data which could be fully ensured only through profound process improvements right through the plan process in conjunction with an absolutely directed capability building exercise. Within these confines the Sulekha application has emerged as a comprehensive Management Information System for plan formulation and monitoring of local bodies thanks to the far-reaching provisions for report generation, which has been built-in.

Similarly, Sevana, the application taking care of the delivery of services rendered by the local bodies to citizens, has emerged as the most distinguished application for IKM ever since the application won the distinction of being the most coveted application for popular IT usage from the Computer Society of India (CSI _TCS Award 2001). The software application has been extensively enriched on the basis of field level experiences obtained during implementation in the grama panchayats as well as urban local bodies.

The application improvements incorporated, among others, embrace the following : (i) building up standardised and normalised systems for data capture eg: Address, Name etc. (ii) establishing conformity with national and international classification systems like International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) of the World Health Organisation (WHO), National Classification of Occupations (NCO-68) of the Directorate General of Employment and Training, Ministry of Labour, Employment and Rehabilitation etc (iii) devising innovative systems for improved citizen services like Citizens Database (iv) tools for conversion from the Malayalam Almanac to the Gregorian Calendar and (v) Graphic Tools for entering identification marks (vi) coding of remarks in the birth, death and marriage register in order to improve capturing of exceptions (vii) use of pre printed stationery for giving a faster print and a better look to the certificates (viii) a thorough revamp of the search engine to achieve faster search results (ix) integration of data entry and verification management within the application for handling legacy data (x) devising mechanisms for quality control in handling legacy data (xi) Onamastik systems for transliteration of name and address entered in Malayalam to their equivalents in English.

The realisation that an ICT intervention heading for a substantial impact on the local body systems should involve computerisation of revenue and accounting, expedited the development of software applications on these two areas - the most significant aspects of functioning of local bodies from a human resource management and financial management point of view. This approach tantamount to "catching the bull by the horn" was ingrained in the IKM strategy for developing an integrated financial management application namely 'Sanchaya'. A rigorous interdisciplinary effort in system design, addressing various facets of the application development namely, possible hurdles in legacy data handling, likely gaps in information due to inappropriate book keeping, divergences in practices across local bodies, problems arising out of the changes in policy frame work and related change management, requirements emerging from work flow integration, efforts in building up integrated result based management mechanisms including human resource management, improvements in tax collection, prevention of tax evasion, tax mapping etc, and devising an arrangement for an effective management information reporting etc was tried out. This was how Sanchaya emerged. Eighty different sources of revenue in local bodies were listed out and an all-encompassing yet generic and normative model for the base engine was worked out through meticulous deliberations. The model was so overwhelmingly parameterised that it could incorporate all aspects of the business rules be it from the central act, the state act, rules or bye laws established by the local bodies, or decisions following recommendations of the State Finance Commission. The Mission geared up itself towards the development of this application, so as to complete its implementation at the earliest. Undoubtedly, this could take the local bodies far ahead in enhancing their revenue collection as well as in managing their human resources more prudently. Integration of Sanchaya with the application package for monitoring the workflow- Soochika- had been on the anvil, for quite some time. An integrated application structure linking Sanchaya and Soochika was envisaged which was assigned an epithet 'San-Soo'. The systems modelling and documentation of San-Soo involved nearly six IKM man-years. The volume of systems documentation built up, the decision charts created to represent the business logics and the flow charts representing the interface and transaction logics were so unwieldy that undertaking the application development as an integrated whole giving due consideration to all the intrinsic interconnections and the finesse on the one hand and managing the software engineering aspects on the other without the aid of a tool was a near impossibility. Further, the projected resource requirements for the development work could almost eat away the entire development team and the lead times for completing the software development life cycle would be also substantial. Given the deviations in book keeping and practices in local bodies and the complexities involved, the customisation requirements would be far beyond the reach and competence of the team and there was always the risk of non implementation. After detailed deliberations the team decided not to be over ambitious. For further refinement and enrichment of the application, the revenue application structure shall be logically broken down into component modules, and full-fledged implementation tried out independently for the relatively intricate modules like Property Tax, Profession Tax, Entertainment Tax, Licensing of Dangerous and Offensive Trades, Licensing of Prevention of Food Adulteration etc., and relative simpler ones like Direct Collections, Grants, Show Tax, and Auctions etc could be handled together as an assortment. The San-Soo integration would be taken up once the finer details at the unit levels are sorted out. However the unit building, testing and implementation shall be carried out keeping in view the big picture of integration in various aspects of financial management, human resource management and information management.

Reforming the existing single entry - cash based accounting system into a double entry - accrual based mercantile accounting system had been debated for long in the local body context. The advantages of going in for a double entry based system include the following: (i) the reformed system would fully reflect the financial position of the local bodies and would also reveal the assets and liabilities created (ii) it would clearly indicate the resources that the local body could mobilise. However, the constraints emerging would be: (i) the changes required in the accounts manual are extensive and the change management is therefore tedious (ii) the enormity of the capability building required for the personnel in the local bodies, given their profile. It would be practical to focus on an accounts re-organisation, which looks at purely functional aspects rather than conceptual aspects. A reorganisation plan centred on computerisation of accounts has gained acceptance. If the accounts application design could retain the appearance of the primary records, and the accounts engine could still be double entry, the reports being double entry based, the immediate requirements could be met with. This precisely had been the object of Sankhya application development. A pilot application for Sankhya has been worked out based on a collective scrutiny of the various designs available. However, the currently available designs don't fully reflect the intricacies of the plan accounting system. This could render the process of plugging the existing holes in the plan monitoring system even more complicated. A comprehensive scheme of account heads incorporating all the aspects of current local body accounting, norms for valuation of assets and calculation of depreciation are yet to be arrived at. A practical approach to linking and cross validating local body accounts with the treasury records, complete integration of accounting systems in the implementation offices with the accounting systems in the local body core and for relating the local body budget with the accounts is also yet to be evolved and tried out. Last but not the least, conformity with the Technical Guide on Accounting and Financial Management of urban local bodies and different account standards of Institutions of Chartered Accounts of India (ICAI) and Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) -34 is also desirable if not a necessity.

Refinement and enhancement of the content in Sanchitha-the encyclopaedic repository of the amendments, legislations, notifications, court orders etc, on decentralisation- have also been under taken on a current basis. The mission has not been able to achieve the full potential of this search cum reference tool for want of resources to carry out an all-inclusive indexing. Development of other applications, Soochika for tracking of files and work flow management. Sugama dealing with purchase and works and Sakarma, the Decision Support System centred around the statutory bodies have been initiated and the first phase of development completed. However, testing these applications would require all other applications as well as a fully computerised office management system to be in place. Further improvements in these applications could materialise only after their existing features are put to trial. Samoohya, an application for compiling, the socio-economic databases in local bodies Saphalya, for registration of the unemployed and to operationalise a virtual employment exchange Sthapana, the application for handling establishment matters Swathanthra; the data product on management in urban local bodies, Surekha, the e-library application Sachitra, the application for premises mapping in local bodies Susthita the GIS application for managing a cadastral information database and the attribute information Sujala, the application for formulating and recording a watershed based development plan Susrutha, the application plug in for, transliteration of names and addresses Sahata, a front end module for facilitating counter collection etc have also been developed. Sahatha is currently used in four corporations, where counters for front end operations have been set up.

The development activities in IKM were fast reaching a point of a stalemate as discussed earlier since implementation inputs were seriously lacking and forecasts on the learning curves of the local body personnel roused an air of pessimism and serious concern. It was in this context that IKM attempted charging up to pursue a passionate rollout in one of the pilot panchayats where the possibility of linkages with other community databases, a prerequisite for testing many a concept of action research mooted within IKM parlours, did exist. The throw of the dice favoured Vellanad grama Panchayat, which had to its advantage availability of a very highly structured socio- economic database created through an elaborate household survey. A thorough implementation effort, going into the details of operational issues associated with the rollout such as pre processing of legacy data, data entry and verification, training, integration with the existing systems, attitude of the staff and the political leadership towards computerisation etc, would be addressed exhaustively and comprehensively and an action plan to mitigate the same in the face of implementation in other local bodies, would be particularly rewarding. The Vellanad exercise could also turn to be a beacon attempt that could be emulated elsewhere.

The yet unfinished, enhanced pilot in Vellanad, reached a crescendo during the Kerala Development Programme campaign month, when the Honourable Minister for Industries and Information Technology declared Vellanad as the first fully computerised grama panchayat in the country. During the quarter preceding the event around eight IKM man-years was invested in Vellanad which focussed on the following aspects of local body computerisation, namely, (i) Property Tax (ii) Profession Tax (iii) Licences and (iv) Accounts in a fair amount of transactional detail which perhaps nobody else has ever attempted so far in the state. The deployment of applications in pilot panchayats had exposed the IKM team to the lack of precision and promptness of book keeping, a plethora of issues that they might encounter in field level implementation, and quite a few constraints to transform the conventional system into an e-governance mode. But when the team started going deep into the revenue and accounting dealings they were thoroughly baffled by the extent to which systems in government can deteriorate when monitoring and regulatory systems stop working. Receipts audit in Vellanad had not been carried out after 1993-94 and demarcation of wards and renumbering of houses was in a real mess with conversion tables for an interim stage lost beyond recovery. There was absolutely no means to work out the transition from the ten ward (pre assessment) scenario to the fourteen ward scenario (post 2000) with the intermediate eleven ward (1995 -2000) data untraceable. The shabbiness of record keeping was beyond description as would be evident from an account of the tax registers and accounts documentation in the local body. In the case of Building Tax Assessment Register, out of the 913 pages in the books 34.28 % pages were damaged where as 3.18 % pages were totally missing; out of the 12860 records 6.83 % was partly missing where as 12.79 % of records were unavailable.

Out of the 218 receipt books in all, for the period 1994-2003, 28-receipt books are missing, and an additional counterfoil of 194 receipts are missing. Records in the Register of Receipts are not available for the periods 1994 June to 1994 December, 1996 January to 1996 March and 1999 July to 1999 September. Fortunately at least one record is available for the entire period.

A multi pronged strategy was evolved to address the problems in property tax register. The BTAR data base was linked with the electoral card data, ration card data for the local body, the D& O, PFA data, data on rent on land and buildings, Pension data etc. The results were validated through a household survey, which captured numbering information of houses, description of house type and details of electricity consumer number. Cadastral map data for the local body updated with field measurement data as well as particulars of major landmarks was used to plot the buildings on it which could serve as the ultimate field check for existence or non existence of the building and could also assist in evolving a unique numbering schema based on location in the field i.e. the premises number. Data on ownership of land parcels from the Basic Tax Register maintained in the Village offices as well as registration data from the index book maintained in the Sub Registrar Offices was also linked with the premises mapping data. Even though the issue of filling the gaps in the BTAR database might have been a requirement specific to Vellanad, the methodology of premises mapping for recording buildings on cadastral maps, with FMB particulars if necessary, and evolving a spatial footprint for tax mapping is generic and can come in handy to streamline the building databases in any local body. Undertaking such an exercise along with house renumbering and collection of self declaration forms can put an end to adhocism in property tax assessment. Since tax regime changes from Annual Rental Value basis to Plinth Area basis is imminent, and the spatial position of a building is a crucial part in the new system of assessment, a GIS based representation of buildings could advance the transparency of the tax assessment process to new heights. IKM has acquired the capability of hosting a premises map of a local body as per digital geospatial metadata standards with provisions for querying in the public domain based on owner's name, address, land parcel number and building number; and provisions for zoom in/out, pan and other controls as well as options to turn on/off layers which could revolutionise property tax reform.

A systematic analysis and evaluation of the documentation compiled from Vellanad could not be undertaken so far because the emphasis hitherto was on rectifying the immediate anomalies and putting the system in operation. One of the weaknesses of the Vellanad exercise was the poor involvement of the staff and elected representatives in the system restoration exercise. Hence operationalising all the applications in the local body has turned out to be an exceedingly strenuous affair. Absence of a Secretary in the panchayat has also aggravated the crisis. However a preliminary analysis has brought to light some interesting aspects: Property tax- out of the 11460 buildings located in the field survey in Vellanad panchayat, 954 buildings could not be located, in the assessment register. The number of non-assessed and under assessed buildings in the local body came to 2330 out of which 1445 buildings were fraudulently exempted by recording them wrongly as huts. The possible quantum of under assessment in property tax alone on an average (per year) comes to 42.52% of the total collection of Rs 4,37,574 per year (assuming present levels of taxation based on Annual Rental Value).

Profession Tax: During the period 1994-2003, the profession tax records have covered on an average 38 institutions and 497 tax payers (The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations has identified the Information Kerala Mission as one among the five leading ICT initiatives in the Globe for their World Summit on Information Society, Geneva, 2003-Tunis, 2005).

123 persons from various institutions have been left out from tax collection because of poor book keeping. This has created a loss of Rs. 49348 per year to the local body. If we include the loss due to wrong demand fixation, this would increase by another Rs.18,218 per year. Even if we don't account for the under assessment of 12-13 institutions for being totally left out of the tax net, the total under assessment comes to 38.08 % of the total average collection of Rs. 17,2212 per year. A rough estimate of the loss due to the institutions being left out would be around Rs.1,25,000 -1,50,000/-

D&O License: Licensing for Dangerous and Offensive Trades (D & O) covers on an average 119 institutions per year. 89 institutions on an average have been left out during interim patches because of poor financial management. Estimated loss on account of this, i.e. due to poor accounting alone, neglecting losses due to underassessment, comes to 66.29 % of the average collection in the D & O license head amounting to Rs. 9730. The figures shown are a gross under estimate of the losses because out of the 411 institutions that could have been covered through licences, only 119 institutions on an average have been included in the license net. The loss estimate could be any where around Rs.10000 to 15000.

Accounts: The average number of receipts transactions per year during the period 1993-2003 is 3419 and payments is 1262. Wrong postings and incorrect recording of transactions comes to 150-200 per year. The quantum of wrong posting, totalling mistakes and other accounting errors comes to an average of 12 % of the total transaction in the own fund account of the local body which comes to 20-25 lakhs of rupees.

Attempts to solve specific field level problems at Vellanad necessitated the development of a product for converting chain survey ladder data into field measurement drawings using AutoCAD; and to join FMB maps into a cadastral map after rubber sheeting if necessary. This application named 'Sachitra' is being streamlined to support various premises mapping activities. Building up strengths in Indian Language Computing was felt as a major requirement ever since Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) developed a new version of ISFOC Script Manager (ISM) Office Version 3.04. Matching of multiple databases in Indian Language required closer look at name and address standardisation. The requirement in Sevana to have name and address in Malayalam transliterated to English led to the development of Sushrutha handling phonetic conversion of Malayalam sounds.

The concept of a citizen database to improve citizens' services was mooted in the context of computerisation of local self government institutions right from 1998 onwards; when it obtained a mention in the IT policy document. The citizen database in the context of Vellanad would represent a public access window in the home page of Vellanad grama panchayat. It would provide a GIS/ CRM (Customer Relations Management) interface connecting an integrated service ID for the citizen which could in turn be related to a bunch of citizen services in the sectors of education, health care, social welfare, employment and leisure, (not necessarily in the public sector) apart from traditional e-governance services; linked to a citizen account based on an address gazetteer linked to property ID in the back end. The application would have a three- tier architecture- a browser based client tier, a mid tier, and a data tier. The client tier would handle the client interface and the middle tier would represent the logical layer between the presentation layer and the data base. The data base tier could handle biometric and image data also. This public access window would symbolize the citizen charter in the virtual space. Achieving this in Vellanad would require ample improvement in the quality of the community information already compiled and appropriate convergence of business at the back end, which would make a viable service model. It is proposed to fine tune this along with the Akshaya initiative which would be launched in Trivandrum District soon.

Refining these techniques and testing of the feasibility and replicability of the methodologies required a scaled up implementation of the micro level strategies tried out at Grama Panchayat. The visibility of the impact of technological interventions in improving the efficiency of the local body system demanded extended implementation, on a wider scale. Computerisation of Urban local bodies emerged as the best possibility to enhance the visibility of the efforts undertaken by the Mission.

This, in fact, required trying out a specific implementation strategy - with front-end operation at the counter of the Corporations, and back end data to be built with the Sevana Application. Customisation of Sevana and Sahatha was undertaken in view of the situation at the corporations. Computerisation of the five corporations was initiated at a good pace and the design and counter set up could be completed well within time, as desired. However verification of legacy data took more time than expected. The quality control process of sample testing the entries in the birth, death and marriage registers has accepted the databases in Thrissur, Kochi and Kollam. The database in Kozhikode is being improved to meet the acceptance criteria. The Janasevana Kendra's have visibly improved the functioning of the corporations as well as the public interface, by automating the collection of receipts and generation of daily-consolidated reports on cash collection. Parallely, registration of birth, death and marriage and distribution of certificates have also been made possible through the implementation of Sevana. The design of the counters giving due consideration to the aspects of convenience to the citizen, the ambience it could create, the ergonomics and overall aesthetics has captured public attention.

In response to the varying practices in the Corporations regarding collection and calculation of fine, Sahatha has undergone a version change already, to go well with the requirements of the existing practices in a corporation. However, since Sahatha has been conceived only as a temporary interface to the revenue related operations at the corporations, which would shortly be linked with exhaustive data bases on institutions, traders and the history of tax collection at the back end, the scope of improvement is only limited. Transaction time at the counters critically depends on back end and further improvements rely heavily on quality of the back end. To sell this to the political leadership in the corporations whose expectations have heightened due to the (rather unexpected) results that have come out in the first phase of the programme and to rope them into an intense effort to set up a strong back end centred around property tax is the challenge. The implementation of Sahatha reiterates the need to evolve standard book keeping and other practices across the local bodies, before a full-fledged implementation is embarked on. It would be rather inappropriate to revise the applications in response to local variations since we would end up in replicating undesirable system defects in the electronic paradigm as well. Computerisation of corporations has helped the Mission realise the magnitude of the operational and technological scaling up required at the level of a corporation. The difference between grama panchayats and urban local bodies in terms of manpower, administrative procedure, volume of transactions, and the levels of customisation required at each level have been brought to surface.

The implementation at corporations had been also helpful in realising the issues related to handholding in different types of local bodies, and the mechanisms to sustain the enthusiasm and favourable attitude towards e-governance programmes. It could also bring to light the training needs of the personnel belonging to different categories of local bodies on various operational aspects of computerisation. Rollout at the corporation has also given a feel of the magnitude, frequency and quality of the technical support to be provided to the local bodies, in connection with computerisation. Issues on the administration of huge citizen databases, the levels of understanding on database and system administration required by the corporation staff, the support personnel and the IKM core technical team etc were also finalised on the basis of these observations. A major area that has been ignored is the confidence building of the employees at large. This may be by and large left to the political leadership; however, there might be a need to empower them on the larger issues involved. A game plan of keeping the employees in good humour and to prevent their insecurity and vested interests coming into direct conflict with the programme has to be carefully evolved.

Realising the ever increasing role of e-governance in modernising the existing administrative systems, several components of computerisation of local self government institutions have found prominent place in the Kerala Government's high profile programme on Modernising Government and other initiatives like the Decentralisation Support Programme, aided by the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the capability building initiatives by the CAPDECK. This has opened up immense possibilities of IKM establishing synergies with these initiatives.

Since the realisation of the programme visualised by the IKM has been closely integrated with the modernisation and renovation of the local bodies as well as the LSG Department, and as it requires establishing synergies to proceed further in this direction, the department has been showing a palpably proactive attitude towards the Mission. This has been instrumental in paving the way for the mission to work in close liaison with the LSG Department. The involvement of the Mission in the recently concluded environment building activities of the Department could be very well regarded as an outcome of the growing synergies between the two. The Mission has actively participated in the promotional campaign on Kerala Development Project, in finalising content for quiz and other competitions for students and also by providing creative and technical inputs in designing the logo of the programme and the materials for campaign, including a series of advertisements in newspapers and, seven spot films, five documentaries and a music album, to be telecast through all the prominent channels.

The Mission, among other activities, has developed an exhaustive web site (url: http://www.localgovkerala.net) coded Samvedita for the LSG Department, which is distinctly different from the conventional web sites maintained by other government departments, in terms of architecture, content, and treatment. Unlike other departmental sites, which offer only limited information, this web site provides a wide variety of user categories with exhaustive information on the geographical, demographic, socio- economic and developmental features of all the 1215 local bodies in the state and almost every aspect of decentralisation, Panchayati Raj, and decentralised planning including the academic deliberations and reports of various commissions and committees at the state and national levels. This could be rather regarded as a 'super portal' of the independent web sites of all the local bodies, and is the largest of its kind, with content volume touching 700 MB equivalent to roughly one lakh pages; facilities for extensive search for amendments, legislations, notifications, and court orders on decentralisation; and provisions for interaction among the local bodies, various institutions and persons interested on the developmental concerns of the state. The web site would soon be developed into an exhaustive, encyclopaedic repository of information on local governance, decentralisation, and development. The architecture of the site permits intensive volume escalation in the future, as the information is mostly retrieved from structured databases. In addition to this, extensive graphics, streaming media content and maps make the website interesting. The compilation of the materials and development of the content on the local bodies have been undertaken in a participative manner, by sending the prototype of the content to the respective local body and requesting them to enrich it, through several iterations. Presumably, an exhaustive compilation of the information on decentralisation in the state would be an uphill task, given the historic nature of evolution and development of the concept and practices of decentralisation, which has reached an advanced level of grassroots level planning, an idea that can not be sustained by several other states, due to obvious socio economic and political reasons.

Though the Mission had been fervently pursuing technology dissemination as an integral objective, serious attention could not be given to this activity during this period. The Mission had initiated an ambitious technology dissemination programme, with the intention of creating connected communities at Thiroorangadi and Vengara Blocks in Malappuram District, which did not get materialised due to lack of institutional support and deficiencies with regard to resource mobilisation. However this later got integrated with Akshaya, the IT department's pioneering initiative for bridging the digital divide, in which IKM is playing a small supporting role. The Mission had been undergoing tiring times since September 2000, particularly during the period of flux that had emerged out of the delay in implementation. Though it was difficult to get stabilised in the changing situations, with the possibility of implementation found no where near, the Mission, banking on its credentials and the heavy intellectual investments made in the past for evolving a paradigm of e-governance and technology assisted development, could thrive successfully. The accolades from the Computer Society of India and the recognition by the International Telecommunication Union (The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations has identified the Information Kerala Mission as one among the five leading ICT initiatives in the Globe for their World Summit on Information Society, Geneva, 2003-Tunis, 2005) had been invaluable jolts at the time of change and uncertainty. The initiative taken by the IT Department to showcase IKM at the prestigious 'IT 2002' deserves a passionate mention, as it had been instrumental in projecting the prospects of the mission to receive national attention. At home, the Mission has relentlessly tried to put in place institutional mechanisms to develop an interdisciplinary outlook to address the growing requirements of technology solutions as well as system understanding by expanding the intellectual domain of the members of the Mission, cutting across disciplines. However, there has been a high level of dependence on individual capabilities for executing certain specific functions in the organisation, which deters organisational expansion. The Mission has tried to institute standards on a result management perspective to monitor individual performance. An organisational MIS based on a workflow application is already in place and efforts are underway to integrate the computerised accounting system in the office with this. Efforts required for maintaining the institutional infrastructure has increased substantially, especially since most of the equipments are in the fag end of their life span. It is noteworthy that the objectives, methodology and activities of IKM, had always been in the midst of richly articulated public debates on various issues related to technology choice, implementation strategy etc, both within and outside the organisation. Such debates, in fact could be attributed to the unique philosophy, principles and methodology of the Mission, built on the concept of Participatory Technology Development, which itself had been the eye of the storm in various deliberations and debates. Choice of the 'Windows' platform for software development and implementation is still being debated in the state. The Mission has explicitly clarified the context behind the present choice of technology, by participating in public discussions and debates. The strategy of implementation, that is being followed by IKM has also been subjected to criticism, from the point that computerisation need be initiated only in a smaller scale. It is argued that the appropriate strategy would be to focus mainly on the requirements for front-end operation, rather than by trying to build up back end databases simultaneously. This argument has gone ground less, as the experiences have shown that building up back end databases, along with front end operation is the most appropriate strategy to streamline the databases, to understand the possibility of business process reengineering, and to facilitate seamless integration of the existing system with the evolving e-governance system. It would also be helpful in simplifying the operation in the long run, as the databases would get automatically updated, whenever a new transaction takes place. Though the Mission has undergone tiring phases, it has made remarkable feats in developing the technology and implementing it, and creating a visible positive impact on the functions of the local bodies. The Mission has been endowed with rich experiences on almost every aspect of implementation at different levels and it would be instrumental in future implementation at a much wider scale. The Mission has developed a total of 75 applications during the period. These include multiple versions and components of 12 products suites and a few other plug-ins and minor applications. The mission has an infrastructure of around Rs.150 lakhs in eight laboratories and the total expenditure of the Mission from the Additional Central Assistance so far had been Rs. 7.27 Crores. A preliminary estimate of the net worth of the products developed by the Mission puts the value around thirty crores of Indian Rupees. The figures for improvement in the collection of taxes and non-tax revenue in Vellanad are revealing. A rough calculation of the total improvement in direct tax collection in a year, by a very conservative estimate, for all the grama panchayats, municipalities, and corporations for the state put together adds up to 22 crores, 11 crores, and 13 crores respectively. Similarly, collection of indirect taxes might get enhanced by 7.5 crores, 0.5 crores, and 1.2 crores approximately, in the same order. The total increase in collection in a year could be 54.6 crores, which would mean that the IKM project as a whole could pay back in three years from the enhancement in own revenue alone, if the total project cost is put at Rs. 150 crores. The guidance and directions of the Honourable Minister for Local Self Government and the Secretary, LSGD had been the leading spirit in the activities of the Mission during the period. The Secretary, Urban Development; Secretary, Planning and Economic Affairs Department; and Secretary, Information Technology have shown keen interest in the activities of the Mission and had been source of constant motivation and inspiration.

P V Unnikrishnan
Executive Mission Director