In a first step towards turning over a new leaf, the Telangana State Technology Services (TSTS) would be implementing one of the biggest online attendance monitoring projects ever attempted in India in about 10,000 government schools in 12 districts from this academic year.
About 12,500 new generation devices are being installed in schools to get real-time information on the attendance through Iris and biometrics that can be monitored through a dashboard. This information can be accessed by the principal of a particular school while the district official concerned can check the same for his area.
Finally, the Director of School Education can know the attendance of all the government schools sitting here in Hyderabad, thanks to the end-to-end software solution developed by the TSTS. The attendance system would be Aadhaar-based with devices endorsed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
Commissioner (Electronic Service Delivery) & Special Commissioner (e-Governance) G.T. Venkateshwar Rao said the system has already been tested in 10 schools and it would now be used extensively in schools with a unique rental model where private parties would be putting up ratified devices. They would work 26 days a month and 12 hours a day. He dismissed apprehensions over Aadhaar data security pointing out that only the biometrics were recorded for identification.
“We are outsourcing the devices as we have had the experience of buying them and later realising that the technology has become outdated,” he explained. Soon, the Backward Class Department is expected to try it for the hostels run by it, while the Tribal Welfare Department is also mulling to introduce the same.
In fact, 22,000-odd employees of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) are currently on a similar attendance-based project developed by TSTS as also JNTU for all its postgraduate students and teachers. The system is tackling up to one lakh authentications a day and would be scaled to six or eight times more as more departments join in.
“The TSTS is now focusing on software development taking up projects for the government departments which we are sure no private firm will be interested in,” said Mr. Rao.
Another software solution developed in-house by TSTS is said to have done wonders for the GHMC trade licence fee collection taking it to ₹54 crore. “We took data from the GST, CPDCL and water board to identify potential tax-payers.
