The iPhone Apps Store is a wonderful example of how a platform could promote the development of thousands of applications by individuals / third parties. Many a time, developers lack a platform to reach the consumers and the consumers are unable to find the applications which are useful to them. In order to facilitate both the developers of e-Governance products and its consumers including Government, business and citizens to discover each other, it is proposed to create a National Apps store in the form of a portal. The purpose of this National Apps Store will be two fold
To be a download repository of software tools. Commonly used proprietary and open source applications will be available for download from this Store by Government employees. In the case of licensed applications, adequate security mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that license agreements are not violated.
To provide a platform that encourages individual developers to develop their own products – proprietary or open source for community good and needs. Such products could be priced or provided free of cost from this platform depending upon the purpose and the business model of the developer. This portal will
a. Assist developers to market their applications to Government, business and citizens
b. Assist Government Departments to search applications that meet their specific requirements, to test the applications for a limited period to evaluate its suitability to their business objectives, evaluate total cost of ownership (TCO) for an application or multiple applications available within the store for a specific requirement etc.
c. Reduce the time taken by the Government Departments to deliver a service electronically to the citizens as third party developers could assess the business opportunity and create futuristic applications. The Store will be one of biggest boosters in the implementation of the EDS Act.
d. Enable developers to assess the demand for a particular application – mostly value added applications and create such applications.
e. Open up an entire market of downstream applications in e-Governance. Government only needs to create upstream applications
This National Apps Store will host both web based and mobile based applications. E-Governance Apps Store
The e-Governance Apps Store will host web based e-Governance applications. Such applications can be downloaded by Government, business and citizens and installed on the servers / client machines or executed through their browsers. In order to populate the Store initially the Government would provide funding support for the development of a few applications. One example of such application could be development of software to track administration of polio drops. Once developed, this application will be made available on the apps store. The CSCs can then download the application from the apps store and install it on their local machines. The Health workers responsible for administering the Polio drops could also download and install the application if they have the requisite infrastructure. The actual information of the infants who have been administered the polio drops in a particular polio drive could be recorded either by the Health workers themselves or through the CSCs. Next time onwards the list of earlier administered infants could be generated and made sure that none of the earlier ones are missed out. The availability of an initial database would then create the enabling environment for the development of value added applications such as those for providing the overall status of the infants vaccinated, for gauging the success and improving the effectiveness of such drives, for identification of locations which need extra efforts, and for planning the future drives.
Mobile Apps Store
It is proposed that a mobile applications (m-apps) store be created to facilitate the process of development of suitable applications for delivery of public services through mobile devices. The m-apps store shall be integrated with the MSDG and shall use the MSDG infrastructure for deployment of such applications. It is proposed that the store will be developed based upon service oriented architecture and cloud based technologies using open standards as far as practicable. The applications themselves can be developed and deployed by Government departments and agencies or by third party developers through an appropriate PPP model. The m-apps store shall be created, owned, and managed by DIT or an agency nominated by it.
Mobile governance holds tremendous potential for improving the access to and delivery of public services in India. The huge potential of m-Governance in the country arises from a number of factors:
The rapidly expanding subscriber base of mobile phone users in India can help in accelerating the use of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) for improving governance and ushering in inclusive development. As on 31st May 2011, the number of mobile phone subscribers in India stood at 840.28 million and the mobile teledensity was 70.23%. Out of the total subscribers, the share of rural subscribers was 33.98%. The total subscriber base of mobile phone users is projected to grow to one billion by 2012.
The relevance of mobile devices as a medium for delivery of public services is also evident when we compare the subscriber base of mobile phones to that of the internet. The total number of broadband subscribers (with minimum connection speeds of 256 Kbps) was only 12.12 million as on 31 May 2011. Wide access to mobile phones in the country has made it an ideal platform for Government to citizen interface, especially in the rural areas.
Though most of the handsets currently available in the country are low-end with only text and SMS capability, handset vendors in India are increasingly producing low-cost handsets with GPRS and other similar technologies and, in some cases, even 3G featured in them. This has helped in expanding the reach of modern mobile technologies such as GPRS and 3G to a large number of people opting for these handsets. This has also made it possible to deliver public services using these technologies in addition to the SMS-based services.
In the Twelfth Five Year Plan, the mission that is envisaged to be achieved through m-Governance is to make public services available to all the residents of India through a mobile platform that is available 24x7 on anytime anywhere basis. In order to leverage the potential of mobile devices as the main service delivery platform, following policy initiatives are proposed:
Making all Government Web Sites Mobile Compliant
The Government of India will support a “One Web” approach to Government web sites. “One Web” means making, as far as possible, the same information and services available to users, irrespective of the device or the browser they are using. This means that the mobile device compatibility of all the Government web sites should be ensured. It is proposed that standards for mobile-based accessibility of central and state Government web sites be established and best practice guidelines for enabling mobile access to these sites be followed. Some of the guidelines that may be adopted in this regard are provided below:
a) Central and State Government websites should consistently enable mobile site access as new sites are designed and implemented. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-mobile-bp-20080729 may be referred to while formulating standards for enabling mobile web access.
b) All Government agencies should use mobile optimized content as a primary method for device support, with device specific style sheets as appropriate. It may be noted that in some smartphones not much effort may be required to
c) Mobile web site access should be supported by CSS specific files for major smartphone devices using any of several device detection methods such as
the Wireless Universal Resource File (WURFL) at
http://wurfl.sourceforge.net to redirect to specific mobile implementations. Other types of web enabled mobile devices, when detected, should degrade gracefully to text based CSS implementations for less capable devices. d) Specialized website addresses for mobile sites should be avoided in
preference to using standard web addresses. As an example, a single URL address “www.india.gov.in” should render the website on a computer browser or a mobile device through a dedicated script that is capable of detecting the device used and redirect to the corresponding content structure. e) The Government websites should take into consideration constrained
resources for bandwidth, screen size, colour, and resolution peculiar to mobile devices.
f) The Government websites, before being made live for public use, should be tested for mobile website implementations in as many targeted devices and simulators as is practicable.
Creation of Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG)
The mobile applications for Government services envisaged under the proposed policy framework will offer an opportunity for “anytime, anywhere” service delivery to support the range of programs implemented by various Government departments, e.g. in health, education, agriculture, rural development, etc. It is therefore recommended that a Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG) be developed and maintained by a suitable agency under DIT. The Proposed MSDG will act as a managed technical infrastructure to accelerate rapid and low-cost development, testing, deployment, provisioning, and maintenance of various m-Governance applications. The objective of creating MSDG is to create a Government-wide shared infrastructure and services to enable the rapid and inexpensive development, mainstreaming and deployment of m-Gov services. It will enhance the interoperability among various government services as well as reduce the total cost of operation of m- Gov services by providing a common pool of resources, aggregating demand for communication and e-Gov services, and act as a platform for various Government departments and agencies to test, rapidly deploy, and easily maintain m-Gov applications and provide mobile based services across the country. Provided below is a list of key, but not exhaustive, functionalities of the proposed MSDG:
a) MSDG will serve as the managed technical infrastructure to support m-Gov applications across the Government departments and agencies in India. It would include facilities such as hardware and software needed to test and deploy m-Gov applications, the connectivity options for the residents to apply for and receive Government services through the mobile devices irrespective of the mobile operator they are subscribed to.
b) MSDG will also have an integrated channel for delivering IVR based services to the residents who wish to access e-Government services through voice mode.
c) The facility to use MSDG will be available for use to any Government ministry, department or agency that wishes to provide mobile based e-Gov
services to its users, thus eliminating the need for individual Government agencies to develop their own mobile governance infrastructure.
d) MSDG infrastructure will support the delivery of both voice and data services and content in a network and device independent manner, reaching the largest number of potential users. In addition, MSDG will offer shared tools (data collection, helpdesk services, APIs, SDKs) to the Government departments and agencies that wish to deploy mobile applications for public services.
e) The MSDG architecture will be modular and will have capabilities for secure service provision, controlled access and scalability. Special modules and development tools will be made available so that various Government agencies can add or remove their services, test new applications through a separate interface thus ensuring that the overall functionality of MSDG is not affected.
f) The MSDG will have a provision for metered access so that the various agencies and partners of MSDG can account for the ‘for fee’ services based upon the actual delivery of services.
g) The MSDG will be developed in such a manner that it readily connects to and integrates with the National Service Directory, NSDG, SSDGs and other existing IT systems and infrastructures deployed under NeGP, and have APIs to permit connection with the users’ IT systems in the future.
h) MSDG will be integrated with the existing mobile payment systems currently prevailing in the country. Additionally, the feasibility of having a dedicated payment gateway to receive payments through mobile devices for Government services shall be examined for integration in the subsequent phase.
i) The MSDG will be primarily owned by DIT, its agencies or any other organization as may be decided by DIT.
Development and Notification of Standards for Mobile Applications
The standards for mobile applications will be developed and notified by DIT. The standards shall aim at ensuring the interoperability of applications across various operating systems and devices to the extent possible. The application providers will be encouraged to adopt these standards.
Notification of Long Codes, Short codes and m-Gov Number for Mobile
Governance
It is proposed to have pre-designated numbers, long and short codes that will be uniform across the telecom operators and states. All the telecom operators will be required to allow the delivery of government services through these pre-designated numbers, long codes and short codes. Interactive IVR and SMS based interfaces will be made available through the MSDG for serving the diversified needs of residents irrespective of the language they use or their literacy levels.
Development of Knowledge Portal and Knowledge Management
Framework for Mobile Governance
mobile governance, it is proposed that a state of the art knowledge portal and knowledge management framework shall be developed and deployed that acts as a platform for awareness generation and dissemination.