Dear
Sir :
Many
thanks for your invitation to attend the inauguration ceremony of Digital India
Week , at the hands of Shri Narendra Modiji , on 01 July , at the Vigyan Bhavan
I
am honored but regret my inability to attend due to indifferent health
I
do hope my past suggestions , in respect of " Digitized E - Governance " , will be given a few minutes
for discussions , during the week-long deliberations
For
your ready-reference , these are reproduced below
with
regards,
hemen
parekh
(M)
0 - 98,67,55,08,08
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VotesApp
Here is a suggestion to
IIT-Bombay , to develop a voting app , to be called VotesApp. Highlights of
VotesApp :
Ø An Android app
which can be downloaded from Google Play / Android Zoom / GetJar and the official
web site of Election Commission of India
Ø It will be
pre-loaded on 220 million Aakash tablets which Govt of India plans to
distribute to students
Ø It will also be
pre-loaded on those Smart phones ( to be called, “ Dharati “ ? ), which Govt of
India plans to distribute free to 400 million “ poor “ Indians , before 2014
National elections
Ø All tablet / smart
phone manufacturers will be encouraged to pre-load VotesApp
Ø Using this app , a
voter can register at Election Commission web site, where he will enter the
same data which he has submitted for his Aadhar card, including Aadhar card
number (Unique Identification No)
Ø All of these
details will be verified by Aadhar database
Ø Obviously , those
who have not obtained their Aadhar card , will not be able to use VotesApp .
They will need to visit nearest polling booth
Ø Upon correct
verification , Aadhar Database will permanently link the person’s Aadhar number
with the mobile number from which registration is done, and issue a
Password
Ø An under aged
person will not be allowed to register
Ø A person will be
able to vote only from that mobile number
Ø After login on
first screen, user will be asked to select one option from > Panchayat
Election > Municipal Election > State Assembly Election > Lok-Sabha
Election
Ø Upon selection,
user will be presented with the list of candidates contesting , from which , he
can select only one by ticking a checkbox. There will be also a choice ,
labeled “ None “
Ø A long press on a
candidate’s name will display details of his declared assets as also his
criminal record
Ø After ticking /
selecting a candidate, voter will click on “ VOTE “ button,
whereupon his vote gets registered and VotesApp gets inactivated
Ø Once a voter
registers on Election Commission web site , he cannot go to a poling booth and
vote physically
Ø In less than one
year , Govt of India will recover the cost of 220 million Aakash tablets and
400 million” Dharati “ smart phones , through this customized / personalized /
shrinking of EVMs ( Electronic Voting Machines ) to a hand-held device. And
imagine the millions of man-hours saved !
Ø And the beauty is
, no one can capture this booth , or conduct exit polls ! What will “ experts “
discuss on TV channels ?
Ø What next ?
Election Commission “licensing “ this App to other countries ?
* hemen parekh
( 18 Dec 2012 )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I SIN><U SIN
That could be the name of an android app ( I
Seek It Now > < U Solve It Now )
To be developed by India’s Central Home
Ministry for successful implementation of proposed,
“ Delivery
of Services Act “
The app will come pre-installed on those
mobile phones which Government of India plans to distribute FREE , to some 400
million “ Poor People “ of India , before the 2014 National Election ( and on
those 220 million Aakash Tablets )
Issuer will enter the Mobile No and that
person’s Aadhar Card No, in a computerised central database , before issuing
the phone
Hence , no need to login to the App , whose
screen will read,
“ I wish to send my complaint to the following
department :
- National
Commission for Women
- Garbage
Clearance
- Water
Supply
- Electricity Supply
- Roads
Repair
- Rationing ( Food Distribution )
- Police
- Bus
Transport
- Railways
- Post
- Employment
- Education
- Irrigation
- Building
Permits
- Revenue /
Land Records
- Anti
Corruption
- Other
……………………………………….etc
(List should not exceed 50)
Touching name of any department name will
open a SMS message box where the user will type out his complaint ( in a
language of his choice )
There will be option to speak-out and record
voice message , for illiterate users
Touching SEND button will transmit the
complaint and within minutes, user will receive SMS reply , giving,
- Name of
Officer responsible
- Office
Landline No
- Mobile No
- Email Id
- Complaint
No
- Expected
date of solving
Bingo !
Then publish online , a tabulation of
departments , arranged in the descending order of the no of complaints received
/ cleared / pending!
This frugal innovation will bring in Good Governance
all over India
Request Nandan Nilekani / Sam Pitroda to help
out , even though they may be busy implementing my earlier suggested app
,
“ VotesApp “
I have no doubt that the political party
which promises , “ I SIN >< U SIN “ , will get voted to power in
2014
* hemen parekh ( 29 Dec 2012 )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digital Locker Project
Dear Shri Ravishankar Prasadji :
Business
Standard ( 23 May 2015 ) writes about an initiative of Department of
Electronics and Information Technology , to create " Digital Lockers "for Indian Citizens ,
where they can store their important documents on internet
This
crowd-sourcing project is supposed to work as follows :
*
Citizens scan their documents on a scanner and then upload those
images in personal Digital Locker ( User ID / Secure Password ? )
*
Special S/W will break-up each document image into hundreds of mini
images ( of a few characters each )
*
Each mini-image will be SMSed to 2 persons ( having Smart phones ? ),
who will type out the characters in TEXT ( WORD format ? )
*
These typed TEXTs will get uploaded into document-owner's Digital
Locker
*
If both these " typed texts " match perfectly ( like CAPTCHA ), it
will
replace that mini-image in the document
Apparently
, the idea is to crowd-source the Smart
Phones / human resources of millions of Indian Citizens - much like the 30 year
old SETI project
But
before taking a final decision to go ahead , I feel following questions need to
be answered :
*
How much will it cost to develop / deploy the required software ?
*
Let us assume that there are only 10 documents
per citizen ( on an
average ) , taking the total to 12.5 BILLION
documents to be scanned
If each document-image has to be broken-up ( again , on an average ),
into just 10 mini-images , that would mean 125 BILLION
mini-images !
*
Now , if each mini-image has to be sent to 2 smart-phones , that
would require , 250 BILLION smart phones !
Now , of course , there are no more than 250
million smart phones
That would require Govt to send to each smart phone owner , 1,000
mini-images !
And let us assume that each mini-image contains , just 10 characters,
( most likely , it will contain 50 characters )
That would require each smart phone owner to type out 10,000
characters !
*
Why would ordinary Indian smart phone owner take time and trouble to
type out 10,000 CAPTCHA-like characters ?
*
How will you motivate them ? By paying ? How much
? Total cost ?
*
How many years will it take to implement entire project ?
*
Do our 1.25 Billion ( document-owning ) citizens have easy access to
scanners ( to scan their own documents ) and
to broadband ( to upload
into personal Digital Locker ) ?
*
On the other hand , is it not far easier for these citizens to use the built-in
camera of their
smart phones to take photos ( essentially , " images " ) of their
documents and directly
upload to their Digital Lockers ? After all , with built-in
mega-pixel camera , every smart
phone has become a " Personal Scanner " !
*
Why not take help from Global Software Companies to automatically
convert those scanned document images into WORD texts , using OCR
technology ?
Latest OCR soft ware have better than 95 % accuracy
Then let the document-owner access OCRed documents in his personal
Digital Locker and EDIT the documents thru his mobile / PC / Tablet ?
Let the onus for accuracy be with the document owner
I am sure , you are aware of the GOOGLE-BOOK project , under which ,
Google has scanned and OCRed and converted to text , billions of pages !
*
Or , why not get Indian Software Giants to develop a Mobile App ( to
be called , DigiDoc ? ) to enable a
document-owner to simply read
out aloud , each of his document , into the smart phone , to convert it
into a TEXT , using " Speech-to-Text " technology ?
Let the document be in any official Indian Language
And ask the Software Company to make the " Speech-to-Text " software
,
" Self Learning " as millions of document owners " correct
" online thru
" Editing " , all those words , mis-spelled by the software !
I believe , the " Bye-Product " of this " Self Learning "
software could well
re-define concepts such as > E Governance > National
Integration !
The document owner will speak out , his :
> Digital Locker Number
> Aadhar Card Number
> User ID
> Password
> Document Name
> Meta-tags / Keywords
When Mobile App acknowledges these details and connects him with his Digital
Locker , he will be prompted to " read out " his document
Later
on , he will be enabled to " View " his document online and EDIT it ,
wherever " Speech-to-Text " software has made any mistakes
Dear Ravishankarji ,
I
urge you to evaluate the alternatives suggested by me , before taking a final
decision
with
regards,
hemen
parekh
Mumbai
(M)
0 - 98,67,55,08,08
May 25 , 2015
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make it A Reality
Objective of tomorrow's MINT
closed door event ( as reported in Ads ) is :
"...to examine the
implications of this vision and propose what's needed to make it a
reality "
Here is one of the things that
I think is needed :
Treat MII ( Make In India ) on
par with MOM ( Mars Orbital Mission )
We have all seen MOM control
room on TV , with dozens of scientists glued to respective computer screens ,
monitoring every aspect of the Mission
And , whenever required ,
taking " Course Correction Actions " in real time
For MII ( Make In India ) too ,
we need such Control Rooms
One at the HUB ( in DIPP ) and
one each in State Capitals ( Spokes )
The concerned officers will
monitor :
> Web Site
Traffic ( better than Google Web Analytics )
Who is visiting from where and looking at which pages , and doing what , and
for how long ...etc
> Message
Traffic
From server log of B2B web site , monitor which FOREIGN COMPANIES are blasting
( We are interested to talk to you ) messages to
which INDIAN COMPANIES
> Action
Traffic
B2B server sending out ( within ONE MINUTE ) , full details of above-mentioned
messages to,
* Indian Diplomatic Missions abroad to get in touch with the
Message-Sending FOREIGN COMPANIES , offering instant help
* Chief Ministers / Industry Ministers / Industry Commissioners
etc of the STATE GOVERNMENTS , where Message-Receiving INDIAN
COMPANIES are located ( - expect a fierce / healthy competition amongst States
to locate project in their States ! )
> Project
Monitoring
Implementation of each project ( above a certain value ) being monitored
using PERT technique ( Mr Rice would appreciate this )
To make MOM , a " reality
" , cost the country , some Rs 430 Crores - and time of some 100
scientists
I believe CONTROL ROOMS ( War
Rooms ? ) of Make In India , may not cost more than Rs 43 Crores ( - all put
together )
And some company like Infosys /
TCS / Wipro , may be able to construct - and operationalize - such rooms
( Hardware and Software included )
within 3 months - given the
challenge to raise our " Ease of Doing Business " rank from 142 to
42 !
*
hemen parekh / 18
Nov 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 3
April 2014
Can e-Governance help
eliminate corruption ?
Most certainly
Look at the following ,
partial list of Central and State Agencies set up to fight fraud , money-laundering
, corruption , tax-evasion , economic crimes etc :
> Public Accounts
Committee (
PAC )
> Central Vigilance
Commission ( CVC )
> Central
Information Commission ( CIC )
> Research and
Analysis Wing
( RAW )
> Serious Fraud
Investigation Office ( SFIO )
> Information
Bureau
( IB )
> Economic Offence
Wing
( EOW )
> Central Bureau of
Investigation ( CBI )
> Department of
Revenue Intelligence ( DIR )
> Comptroller and
Auditor General ( CAG )
> Anti Corruption
Bureaus ( States ).... ( ACB )
> Enforcement
Directorate
( ED )
> Lok
Ayuktas ( States )
> Lok
Pal ( Central
)
Despite such an army of
Agencies , how do corrupt manage to get away ?
Or , in case caught , manage
to delay delivery of punishment for years ?
No doubt , there must be several
reasons , including , inter - agency rivalry to get credit - something
difficult to eliminate altogether
But , I believe , the most
important reason is :
Lack of a
COMMON / COMPUTERIZED database of all offences / cases / persons being investigated
And , which is
readily " Accessible " to all of these Agencies , all over the
country ( 24 * 365 )
Already , every Agency
compiles huge dossiers on " Suspects " in its own
" Departmental Database " , which is never
shared with other Agencies ,
leading to ,
> Huge amount
of duplication of efforts / information
> Fractured /
scattered profiles of " Suspects "
> Enormous
waste of time / resources
What will help ?
> Dismantling of
individual departmental databases
> Merging of all
Agency-wise databases into a SINGLE / UNIQUE
database
> All Agencies to
enter their findings / data / info into this COMMON
database , with nothing preserved on local computers
> All data-entry FORMS to be ONLINE . No paper forms at
all
> All local
computers connected to ultra-secure Network ( Encrypted )
> " Access
Rights " to individuals , based on Biometric Identification
Will BJP want to make this ,
a prominent promise in their Poll-Manifesto , likely to be released on 7th
April ? ( Congress / AAP missed this boat ! )
It is high time political
parties stop talking of motherhood in vague terms and start telling the voters
,
" If you vote us to
power , this is precisely what we will do , to bring about E-GOVERNANCE
- and do it within 6 months of assuming power "
* hemen
parekh ( 04 April 2014 / Mumbai )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment