State's mgovernance fascinates Centre

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
25 Jan 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The mobile governance (mgovernance) venture of Kerala seems to have impressed not only the state but the nation as a whole.


Within a month after the formal launch of the muchhyped mgovernance applications, the Centre has expressed keen interest in extending the project to other states as well. Around 40 services related to the Kerala government are at present offered through the mobile phone platform and more services are in the offing.

Sources in the state IT Department told Express that the Union Department of Information Technology (DIT) had sought a proposal from the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) on implementing the mgovernance project in all the states. The IT Mission had submitted the proposal in this regard and it was discussed at a meeting of DIT officials chaired by Joint Secretary, DIT, Shankar Aggarwal, in New Delhi last week, it is learnt.

According to sources, the tentative plan is to provide an infrastructure for a nationwide mobile governance platform from Kerala.

"The new data centre of the state government coming up at Technopark may become the backbone of the entire system. Also, there will be servers in other locations across the country so as to form a cloud computing model of backup support," the sources said.

The mgovernance project of Kerala, funded by the Centre, was formally launched last month. The Goa government has already launched an mgovernance project in line with the Kerala mgovernance application. With 3G technology gaining popularity, some of the government departments are even exploring the possibility of making use of the new technology to deliver interactive services through smart phones. The State Tourism Department has already launched 3G portal.

The KSITM has initiated the mgovernance of the state with the technical support of Technoparkbased firm MobMe. The mgovernance services being delivered by the state government at present include Kerala Public Service Commission's examination related information, Sabarimala information, bus timings, information regarding bills of various government services and examination results.

The services that are now being delivered through the edistrict project of the state will also be made available through mgovernance shortly