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Friday, Oct 31, 2008
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IDEAS to track file movement

S. Anandan

Kochi: IT seems to give the State a lot of ideas to improve governance these days.

IDEAS (Information and Data Exchange Advanced System), a web-interface to track the movement of files, which was made operational more than a year ago in ministries and major departments in the Secretariat in a bid to streamline office functioning and enhance public–government interaction, is slated for completion in six months.

Jointly managed by the State Information Technology (IT) Mission and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), IDEAS operates on advanced hardware and open source software technology platforms. “The adoption of this at the Secretariat, however, has not been as much as we have desired,” said a senior officer in the IT Mission.

Better interaction

“It necessitates detailed data entry of all in-bound and outgoing communication besides people’s petitions at each desk as files circulate among seats and sections. While helps officials locate files easily, it enhances better government-public interaction as well as it enables petitioners to know their file status over the Internet. However, reluctance on the part of employees to comply with it has rather delayed its implementation. That is being addressed by way of frequent training and monitoring,” he said.

Apart from official apathy, insufficient infrastructure has also contributed to the delay. All 2,500 seats in the Secretariat do not have computers. Hitches are there with connectivity and wiring, too. Albeit gradually, trouble-shooting is on and upgrade of computers is taking place. Networking of computers in the annexe, for instance, is progressing. “Once multiple offices are IDEAS-enabled, people could find out status of their petitions at the click of a button as it would be accessible on the Internet,” said Ajay Kumar, IT Secretary.

After its successful implementation at the Secretariat, the system would be extended to offices having Internet-enabled computers and those that are part of the State Wide Area Network (KSWAN). The technical education director’s office and the Legislative Assembly have already embarked the project.

A similar system, DC Suite, has been initiated with various degrees of progress at six Collectorates. Kiosks, where petition status is available, have also been set up in some of them.

As the Secretariat gets IDEAS in full, a kiosk with similar facility would be set up here as well, sources said.

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