NIC should become a strategic advisor to govt instead of writing codes: Ram Sewak Sharma
Q&A with Secretary, Dept. of Electronics & IT
Surabhi Agarwal | New Delhi May 20, 2014 Last Updated at 19:40 IST
In his first interview after taking over as the Secretary of the Department of Electronics and IT, Ram Sewak Sharma talks about the need for the department to reinvent itself and relook at projects initiated several years ago as they may not be relevant anymore given the changing nature of technology. In an interview with Surabhi Agarwal, Sharma, who was formerly the Director General of UIDAI and served as Chief Secretary of the Jharkhand government in his last assignment, also talks about the need for organisations like National Informatics Centre to just act as technology advisors to the government instead of focusing on non-core activities like developing software. Edited Excerpts…
What insights do you carry to this new post from your past interactions with the department as the chief secretary of the Jharkhand government and director general of the UIDAI?
It is a good experience to work with the state government before assuming this role. Because, it’s from there, you can see how the projects are being implemented; how the interface of the states with the NIC (National Informatics Centre) takes place; what are the deficiencies and pain points. So that experience will help in fine-tuning, restructuring, redesigning some part of the projects under the National E-Governance Plan.
What are the key gaps that you have identified so far?
The first phase of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched in 2006; eight years have passed since then. A lot of things have changed – both in software as well as hardware. Mobile has now become a very effective delivery medium. So, I think we need to redesign or restructure various projects, which have become obsolete in terms of their structure. For example, many of the programmes were developed on client server technology and now you have cloud. We have to leverage cloud and deliver services through mobile, tablets etc. So, a lot of restructuring is required. One of the important points that I want to make is that currently there are huge silos. We need to create more information interchange protocols to bridge the gap. I think data driven decision-making or data analytics is one area which is lacking. Over the years, states have created a lot of data such as property, taxes, treasury etc. We need to have this data analysed to draw patterns, trends, fraud or tax evasion analytics.
What are the other areas in which you envisage a re-look?
I think NIC should become an advisor to the government rather than an application developer. In many of the states, you will find that NIC employees are developing applications, writing codes. That paradigm has to change. NIC is a strategic partner, and they should provide advice while application development should be done by others. NIC shouldn’t be writing codes. We should also be able to develop many more platform applications. For example, Aadhaar – which is like a platform on which you can develop applications. States can just ride on it, create a login and get going. For example, payment gateways, SMS gateways, PDS and transport applications can be easily standardised. This will lead to simplification of the design architecture and reduction in the duplication of works.
How do you look at the new government and its technology vision?
The new government will have its own policies or priorities. So, we will have to redesign or reorient the policies in accordance with the priorities of the new government. I am pretty hopeful that this area, especially governance, will become a huge focus of the new government. Electronics manufacturing is also a priority area. We can provide employment to a huge number of people besides cutting down on our electronics import.
What is going to be your strategy to address issues of cyber security, internet governance as this is an emerging area where India has a lot of catch up to do?
Internet governance is one area where we would like to have an important role to play considering that we are the largest users of this infrastructure. The customer base of Internet in India is very high. Efforts are on and we have articulated our views. We are also trying to put some institutional frameworks to ensure better cyber security.
What insights do you carry to this new post from your past interactions with the department as the chief secretary of the Jharkhand government and director general of the UIDAI?
It is a good experience to work with the state government before assuming this role. Because, it’s from there, you can see how the projects are being implemented; how the interface of the states with the NIC (National Informatics Centre) takes place; what are the deficiencies and pain points. So that experience will help in fine-tuning, restructuring, redesigning some part of the projects under the National E-Governance Plan.
What are the key gaps that you have identified so far?
The first phase of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched in 2006; eight years have passed since then. A lot of things have changed – both in software as well as hardware. Mobile has now become a very effective delivery medium. So, I think we need to redesign or restructure various projects, which have become obsolete in terms of their structure. For example, many of the programmes were developed on client server technology and now you have cloud. We have to leverage cloud and deliver services through mobile, tablets etc. So, a lot of restructuring is required. One of the important points that I want to make is that currently there are huge silos. We need to create more information interchange protocols to bridge the gap. I think data driven decision-making or data analytics is one area which is lacking. Over the years, states have created a lot of data such as property, taxes, treasury etc. We need to have this data analysed to draw patterns, trends, fraud or tax evasion analytics.
What are the other areas in which you envisage a re-look?
I think NIC should become an advisor to the government rather than an application developer. In many of the states, you will find that NIC employees are developing applications, writing codes. That paradigm has to change. NIC is a strategic partner, and they should provide advice while application development should be done by others. NIC shouldn’t be writing codes. We should also be able to develop many more platform applications. For example, Aadhaar – which is like a platform on which you can develop applications. States can just ride on it, create a login and get going. For example, payment gateways, SMS gateways, PDS and transport applications can be easily standardised. This will lead to simplification of the design architecture and reduction in the duplication of works.
How do you look at the new government and its technology vision?
The new government will have its own policies or priorities. So, we will have to redesign or reorient the policies in accordance with the priorities of the new government. I am pretty hopeful that this area, especially governance, will become a huge focus of the new government. Electronics manufacturing is also a priority area. We can provide employment to a huge number of people besides cutting down on our electronics import.
What is going to be your strategy to address issues of cyber security, internet governance as this is an emerging area where India has a lot of catch up to do?
Internet governance is one area where we would like to have an important role to play considering that we are the largest users of this infrastructure. The customer base of Internet in India is very high. Efforts are on and we have articulated our views. We are also trying to put some institutional frameworks to ensure better cyber security.
