Electronic vision

There are plans to make Chandigarh a knowledge-based city where the flow of information is unhindered.

THE Chandigarh administration is working towards making the city grow as a knowledge-based one. Chandigarhs economy has already been changing. Services have become most important, especially knowledge-based services. The city is also emerging as regional hub for Information Technology and IT-enabled Services (ITES). The scope for employment and industry is limited, especially if the environment is to be kept beautiful and the air clean. The logical step forward, then, is to invest heavily in developing IT and related service industries.

One of the first initiatives in this respect has been the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park a project planned over 650 acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) in three phases. Phase 1 has Infosys (in a Special Economic Zone, or SEZ) as the main anchor along with 13 small and medium enterprises that were allotted sites. DLF has built about six lakh square feet, which is to be used by IT companies, and a multi-utility block with facilities for entertainment, restaurants, etc. A hotel site has been auctioned too. At least 5,000 professionals already work here. In Phase 2, there are companies such as Wipro and Tech Mahindra, along with eSys and Bharti Airtel. Phase 3 is under way.

In addition, an entrepreneur development centre has been planned within the park, on 1.3 acres. The Rs.15-crore project will provide space to IT companies and all basic facilities to young entrepreneurs. This is intended to encourage the general climate of entrepreneurship and research in software. The centre will serve as a transit point for companies that wish to set up shop in the park. Angel investors, venture capitalists and financial institutions that want to invest in start-ups will be major stakeholders in this project, as will be students, chartered accountants and lawyers who specialise in intellectual property rights.

This centre will be headed by a board of mentors, which will include representatives of the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Punjab Haryana Delhi Chamber for Industry and Indian Angel Network. The space is envisioned as one that enables talent to connect with academic bodies and helps young people draw up business plans and market them.

Another significant project is the Cyber Security Research Centre. The Chandigarh administration is collaborating with the Punjab Engineering College (PEC) and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) to enable research in cyber security. The centre will be run from the PEC campus.

The administration also seeks to use IT for the benefit of all citizens and is determined to bridge the digital divide. The Department of Information Technology has taken a number of steps towards this end, starting with the Sampark project. E-Sampark was launched in September 2004, bringing all the essential services under one electronic umbrella, making dealings with the government easier and removing the prospect of harassment by bringing in greater transparency.

Under this project, 18 government-to-citizen and four business-to-citizen services are now available from nine Sampark centres. Three new centres have been planned and more than Rs.784 crore has been collected through them as revenue. The footfall already exceeds 1.4 lakh and is a testament to the relief with which citizens have received the project. They can pay electricity bills and taxes; receive bus passes and senior citizen cards and pensions for the elderly, the handicapped and widows; book community spaces; register tenants or domestic workers; submit passport applications; get birth and death certificates, and so on all from a single centre.

To ensure that rural areas get the same benefits, the e-Gram-Sampark project was launched. Common service centres have been authorised in each village. Seven are already up and running and all villages will be connected by the end of the year so that they have all the facilities that urban citizens get, through Sampark centres. The rural centres will also have access to the Internet and the World Wide Web through this project so that the centre doubles up as a rural knowledge centre where information services come free of cost.

The e-Jan Sampark project is another offshoot, which enables the common people to access information and avail themselves of services with ease at kiosks. Citizens can submit their grievances at a common centre. Those who do not have Internet connectivity will also benefit. Right to Information applications can now be filed from such centres.

Taking the electronic vision further, the administration will also start e-tendering; tender quotations can be submitted online. Through an e-procurement platform, tender notices can be published, tender enquiries made, and bids submitted.

The Government of India has been supporting all these initiatives, since it is part of the national e-governance plan. Consultants such as PricewaterhouseCoopers have been roped in to prepare a detailed report on the municipal corporation, transport, urban planning, health, education and electricity departments.

The other major electronic ventures are the SWAN State Wide Area Network project, through which all government offices will be connected, and C-Toss or the Chandigarh Training On Soft Skills project, which is aimed at enhancing the soft skills of the people in order to better their employment prospects in ITES industries. The C-Toss programme is being run in 38 urban government schools and 17 rural schools. Yet another project is called CITROP Chandigarh IT Reach-out Program, wherein the administration is collaborating with Infosys to give basic computer training to schoolchildren.

Apart from making the optimum use of the citys electronic potential, the administration is also bringing in changes to other sectors. A modern terminal market is being developed in Sector 39. Chandigarh has taken the lead in what is expected to harness the potential of consumers demand and provide competitive alternative marketing structure to farmers. The Terminal Market will provide comprehensive solutions to meet farmers needs, functioning on a hub-spoke format; the terminal market will be the hub and the collection centres will be the spokes.

To be set up on 66 acres in the agricultural zone in the city, this is visualised as a place where all agriculture-related activities can be brought together. Futures trading, banking services, waste and refuse treatment, basic lodging and weighing and price checking all this will be created in the agricultural zone.

While IT is a major focal point for economic reasons, some other significant developments have been taking place. Wherever possible, IT has been applied to bring about changes. One is the Chandigarh Child Protection Programme, under which sensitisation programmes are conducted for school principals and teachers relating to classroom indiscipline, child safety and child safety in transit. They are encouraged to interact with NGOs working in this sector.

Experts have been counselling teachers against corporal punishment. Class monitors are taught to identify stress and how to offer support. Students are taught about personal safety, bullying, abuse, handling trauma and behavioural problems. Counsellors are assigned to all government schools in the city, twice a week. A website, the Missing Child Link, has been inaugurated to trace missing children.

Besides, there are plans to resettle 23,841 families living in slums. The administration will build 25,000 houses to resettle those residing in jhuggis. However, the flats will initially be given away on a licence fee basis, not on ownership basis. The residents will be given the ownership option at the end of 20 years, on payment of the balance due. The one-room flats will have water and electricity and sewerage facilities. Each household will also get smart cards, with family information and photographs and details of the licence fee instalments paid. The card also serves as an identity document. Through electronic fingerprinting, the administration will ensure that the cards are not sold or transferred.

Through IT Vision 2010, the administration wants IT applied to society, so that all citizens benefit. It envisages an automated city state with total e-governance. It visualises the use of multi-service smart cards by every citizen. There is a plan to upgrade the city so that each commercial and residential space in Chandigarh can be connected by optic fibre and people have access to the Internet. All prominent locations are to be made wi-fi.