Role of ICT in Grassroots Planning and Smooth and Transparent Flow of Funds

Conference on Role of ICT in Grassroots Planning and Smooth and Transparent Flow of Funds held in 15th – 16th March 2007 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. This conference was built together with Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

The outline content for the conference is as follows:

Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF):

It explored how the funds can flow more efficiently while also giving a feedback mechanism to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj on disbursements. This essentially would involve non-intrusive monitoring of fund flows from the treasuries to the Panchayat Bank Accounts. As a preparatory work there would be a need to create the Panchayat databases for the identified 250 districts and also the databases of their bank accounts. These need to be mapped on the banking infrastructure available in the districts and whether such banks are on core-banking technology or have other mechanisms to provide feedback on disbursements. See if such disbursements are possible within a fortnight and if such a system works can that also be used for the Central Finance Commission allocations.

Proactive Role of the Banks:

Can banks lend to not only the livelihood projects but also projects that may create remunerative assets (e.g. water supply, or a building that is rented to the bank itself etc.). They also bring in an element of capacity building and management expertise that can help Gram Panchayats to create better and sustainable answers to their felt need problems through a direct dialogue and involvement of locally present banks. This may result in innovative partnership that results in very good projects at the grassroots level, dependent entirely on the will of the people.

Grassroots Planning:

There are quite a few issues to be addressed before such an exercise can become meaningful. This includes data formats, methodology and provisioning for data collection, role of ICT in collating, analyzing and representation of the same in areas like natural resources, Gram Panchayat level resources, citizens databases, good governance practices and matching of resources to the plan. There is also the important issue of having the necessary financial allocations for supporting all the above.

Skoch Summit is the biggest confluence of industry stalwarts, policy makers, influencers and consultants on a common platform to deliberate and debate on critical issues, identify thrust areas and formulate strategies to improve India’s ICT-led competitive advantage.

Its time to salute excellence once again. The Annual Skoch Summit aims at sharing and learning from best practices by showcasing case studies which have made remarkable impact on changing people’s lives and have revolutionized the way business is transacted through exemplary use of ICT in areas of social transformation e-governance, Banking and Financial Services (BFSI), education and affordable computing.

Skoch Challenger Awards for the year 2007 were conferred during the Summit to some such people, projects and technologies of national significance.

Skoch Summit has emerged as the most prestigious and respected annual event for Indian IT industry and is a serious and senior gathering of about 200 delegates from India and abroad consisting of central and state government functionaries, academia, IT industry, economists, NGOs, Analysts and large users all stake holders in ICT-led development of India.

A key highlight of the Annual Skoch Summit was the Challenger Awards Ceremony for 2007. These awards were conferred on to people, projects, organizations & technologies that went the extra mile and made an impact in India’s ICT-led competitive advantage.

Every year hundreds of “best-in-class” contenders compete for Challenger Awards that recognize and acknowledge excellence and exemplary efforts made by individuals and organizations for their contribution in key areas such as e-governance, BFSI, academic excellence, ICT penetration.

Speakers
Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar, Hon’ble Minister for Panchayati Raj
Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Hon’ble Minister for Rural Development
Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister
Mr. Sameer Kochhar, Chief Editor & CEO, Skoch Consultancy Services
Dr. D. B. Phatak, Chairman, Pragram Committee
Dr. M. Govinda Rao, Director, National Institute of Public Finance & Policy; and Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India
Ms. Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India
Mr. R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology, Government of India
Mr. M. Rajamani, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development
Mr. Ramesh Ramanathan, Founder, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship & Democracy
Mr. D C. Misra, Sr. Technical Director, National Informatics Centre
Mr. Alok Srivastava – UNDP
Mr. Avtar Singh Sahota – Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj
Prof. D. B. Phatak – IIT Mumbai
Mr. Ramesh Ramanathan – Janaagraha
Mr. M. Rajamani – Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development
Mr. S. P. S. Grover, Vice President, Oracle India
Mr. R. I. S. Sidhu, General Manager-IT, Punjab National Bank
Ms. Rama Hariharan, National Informatics Centre
Mr. M. R. Sreenivasa Murthy, Principal Secretary, Rural Development and
Mr. S. N. Tripathy, Secretary RD and IT, Government of Orissa
Mr. R. N. Ghosh, Principal Director, Local Funds Audit, CAG
Mr. Nikhil Dey / Representative of Majdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, Rajasthan or
Mr. P. N. Koul, Director, Institute of Public Auditors of India
Mr. Kedar Nath Khandelwal, President, Institute of Public Auditors of India
Mr. Rupendra Bhatnagar, General Manager, Oracle India
Mr. Rohit Kumar, Country Head-Public Sector, Microsoft India
Dr. B. K. Gairola, Director General, National Informatics Centre
Mr. Surendra Arora, Director, Intel India
Mr. Rohit Kumar, Country Head-Public Sector, Microsoft India
Dr. Bakul Dholakia, Director, IIM-A
Mr. Alok Sinha, Chairman & Managing Director, Food Corporation of India
Mr. Venkatesh Hariharan, Red Hat India
Mr. Nikhil Kumar, MP and Chairman, Standing Committee on IT, Parliament of India
Mr. Sanjay Jotshi, Director, India & SAARC, Juniper Networks
Mr. Rajendra Kumar, Secretary-IT, Government of Delhi
Ms. Rameshwari Handa, DDG-Financial Services, Department of Post
Mr. Sunil Jain – Business Standard
Mr. M. V. Nair – CMD, Union Bank of India
Mr. K. Pothi Raj – General Manager, Bank of India
Dr. N. Vijayaditya – Controller of Certifying Authority
Mr. D. Kailash Prasad – Member, Postal Services Board
Ms. K. Noorjehan, Chief Post Master General, Maharashtra