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Battle for multi-billion dollar e-governance projects hots up

Leslie D'Monte in New Delhi

The battle over standards for the multi-billion dollar e-governance projects is once again hotting up.

IT majors like IBM, Sun Microsystems and Red Hat have shot letters to industry bodies -- Nasscom (for software) and MAIT (for hardware) -- and the department of information technology, protesting over the inclusion of clauses which allow for 'multiple standards' and 'royalty on software' versus a 'single' standard and 'free' software.

At the second meeting of the apex body on standards for e-governance held on June 17 this year, all the members approved Unicode 5.1.0 as a standard for e-governance applications for all 22 Indian languages (except Kashmiri).

They also approved the Open Type Font as a mandatory standard for e-governance applications.

With regard to metadata (name, age, sex, etc. for land records and the like) and data standards, too, there was a consensus.

However, it was on the draft policy on 'Open Standards' that the differences emerged. While Nasscom presented that 'multiple' standards should be allowed, secretary DIT, R Chandrasekhar, himself pointed out that 'complete interoperability could possibly be achieved through single standard.' However, he added that the '. . .possibility of ensuring the same through multiple standards can also be considered in consultation with Industry.'

Nasscom and MAIT were to get back with industry feedback on this subject by July 7-8 which they did.

But players like IBM and Sun are not happy. Insisting that they do not subscribe to Nasscom's views on the subject, they have put on record that they were not consulted by the software body before it presented its view to the government.

"Sun Microsystems believes the Draft Policy on e-Governance Standards, ver 2.0 is an extremely well drafted policy evolved by the government and the policy will help save valuable tax payer's money from being wasted and in creating sustainable e-governance assets...Specifically, we believe that adopting multiple standards in any way will greatly damage the critical e-governance infrastructure of the country and would also increase its vulnerability.

"We also believe that adopting standards that are not Royalty free will compromise the technological sovereignty of the nation....Sun Microsystems was not consulted by Nasscom before presenting its view on the Draft Policy on e-Governance standards," stated Jaijit Bhattacharya, country director, Government Strategy (Asia South and India), Sun Microsystems India, in a letter addressed to Nasscom President Som Mittal.

Ashish Gautam, country leader (open standards), IBM India, confirmed the same and said: "We have written to the DIT, expressing our concern on these suggestions."

Venkatesh Hariharan, corporate affairs director, Red Hat, too, asserted that his company was not consulted, adding: "...We do not support the recommendations of Nasscom...since standards should belong to humanity and not be controlled or owned by anyone.

"In the physical world, we do not pay for using standards like weights and measures. . .In order to protect India's digital sovereignty, we must ensure that national data is stored in formats that are open and free of all encumbrances like royalties, patent claims etc. The government is the custodian of data that belongs to the citizens of India. It must therefore ensure that this data is not stored in formats that are owned and controlled by anyone."

Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT, when contacted, said: "We are in the process of consulting our members, and will soon come up with a well thought-out stance." The e-governance apex committee is expected to meet shortly.

The draft 'Open Standards' policy for e-governance has been in the works for the last two years and several public consultations have been held on this subject. The two recommendations -- one of royalty under 'reasonable and Non Discriminatory' terms and multiple standards -- if accepted, will lead to multiple, proprietary standards, argue these companies.

Egovernment data like land records, etc., these companies point out, remain relevant for hundreds of years. If this data is stored in proprietary formats, it will prove expensive for the country in the long-term, and unnecessarily end up gobbling tax payers' money (if royalty has to be paid).

Incidentally, there has never been a more intense global industry debate over 'open standards'. On the one hand is Microsoft's Office Open XML file format backed by Apple, Novell, Wipro [Get Quote], Infosys [Get Quote], TCS [Get Quote], and Nasscom. On the other is the Open Document Format, supported by the likes of IBM, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Google, the Department of Information Technology, National Informatics Centre, CDAC, IIT-Mumbai and IIM-Ahmedabad.

India recently maintained its earlier stance of 'No' to the software major's OOXML (which has been accepted by the International Organisation for Standardisation as an international standard).

ODF proponents oppose OOXML on the grounds that 'multiple standards' are not good, while Microsoft argues that OOXML -- a recognised standard by ECMA International too -- is a response to evolving technology formats in line with continual evolving technology systems.

The debate appears to be a proxy for product competition in the marketplace, argue opponents. It is significant, in part, because it will influence the future success of Microsoft Office -- one of Microsoft's largest and most profitable product families.

Governments are wary of holding digital data in proprietary formats, which could make them hostage to a software vendor.

States such as Delhi, Kerala and others from the North-East are heavy adopters of ODF file formats which are open and free (excluding maintenance and support).

Courtesy: Rediff

CAG’s compliance Audit Report on Information Technology Applications in PSUs

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s (C&AG) Audit Report No. CA 23 of 2009-10 – Information Technology Applications in Public Sector Undertakings (Compliance Audit) was tabled in the Parliament today i.e., 9th July, 2009.

Report No. CA 23 of 2009-10 contains results of Information Technology Audit of different IT applications used in various areas of activity in nine Public Sector undertakings (PSUs) under five Ministries.

Some common deficiencies noted in audit were incorrect mapping of business rules, the business continuity plans, disaster recovery plans and IT security policy were either not in place and where formulated were deficient, weaknesses in input controls and validation checks did not ensure completeness, reliability and integrity of data.

The Information Technology Audit of various software programmes revealed the following weaknesses/deficiencies:

The Frequent Flyer Programme of National Aviation Company of India Limited is a customer loyalty reward programme. The IT audit revealed deficient input controls resulting in issuance of award tickets even when adequate mileage points were not available at credit of members. The system had deficient information security controls due to which confidentiality, integrity and availability of information could be compromised.

Coal India Limited (CIL) decided to implement computer network project ‘CoalNet’ for data sharing between the Ministry of Coal, CIL and its subsidiaries. The CoalNet project was not implemented completely in any of the subsidiary companies even after seven years due to non standardisation of the business process. Absence of standard back up procedure made the data unsafe against disasters. Lack of adequate training on CoalNet and non-availability of user manuals also indicated the absence of business continuity plan. The implementation of CoalNet remained unsatisfactory despite an investment of Rs.39.58 crore.

Bharat Electronics Limited introduced SAP in October 2006 in Bangalore Complex and subsequently in other units. Acquisition and implementation of SAP, utilisation of Production Planning and Material Management modules of SAP at Bangalore Complex were reviewed. The savings projected by implementation of SAP towards inventory carrying cost, cost of goods sold and reduction in sundry debtors by the Company did not materialise. Failure to design the required controls in the system, inappropriate customisation etc., during data migration resulted in non-utilisation of the SAP system to its full potential and as a result the integrity and accuracy of the data could not be ensured. Consequently the Company still depended on the legacy system and resorted to manual interventions.

Biecco Lawrie Limited undertook computerisation without formulating an IT policy and developed several modules. The deficiencies in system design like non-integration of different modules with finance modules and non-enforcement of data integrity resulted in manual intervention at each stage which rendered the system vulnerable to the risk of incorrect generation of data. In view of such deficiencies, the Company could not achieve the complete benefits of computerisation.

A review of RAMCO e-Application system in Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited revealed control weaknesses such as users IDs were not linked with employee ID and employee wise entry details (IN entries) did not match with exit details (OUT entries) which defeated the primary objective of access control. Non-integration of the RAMCO e Applications system among various units resulted in manual intervention and led to risk of data entry errors. Non-provision of maintaining history of changes in the system resulted in lack of audit trails.

GAIL (India) Ltd. switched over to SAP ERP system in August 2005. Review of the Financial Accounting module and e-Security issues for the period August 2005 to September 2008 revealed lacking input controls, validation checks and supervisory controls leading to unreliable database. Inadequate customisation of system led to incomplete or incorrect data. Non-rationalised user roles and authorisations to critical combinations and sensitive transactions posed the risk of misuse and manipulation.

Audit reviewed the implementation and customisation of Material Management module of Indian Oil Corporation Limited. The review revealed deficiencies in the input controls and validation checks which ran the risk of unreliable data entering into the system. Some features of the system were not adequately customised.

Human Resource module of the SAP system of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited was not customised for manpower planning activities, determination of staffing needs, selection of personnel for various postings based on pre-defined criteria. Lack of input controls in the system also resulted in feeding of erroneous and incomplete data affecting integrity of data maintained.

Bokaro Steel Plant (BSP) of Steel Authority of India Limited computerised the Invoicing System which comprised of a ‘File Server System’ using Oracle9i developed in house. It was seen that there were multiple data entries of the same source data which delayed the preparation of invoices. There were inadequate physical access controls, as well as environment controls which rendered the System and data unsafe against un-authorised access, as well as fire hazards.

Representation of women members on Selection Committees/Boards Mandatory

Government has initiated steps to ensure better representation of women members on various Committees/ Boards concerned with the selection to posts in Central Government and also to monitor the trend in recruitment of women. Accordingly, DoPT has written to the secretaries of all Ministries/Departments of GoI, UPSC and SSC to instruct all appointing authorities to scrupulously observe the following guidelines:-

(i) The composition of selection Committees should be representative. It should be mandatory to have one woman member in the Selection Boards/ Committees for making recruitment to• ten (10) or more vacancies and lady candidates are expected to be available for the service / Post.

(ii) Where the number of vacancies against which selection is to be made is less than 10, no efforts should be spared in finding a lady officer for inclusion in such Committees / Boards.

(iii) In the event of such an officer not being available in the Ministry / Department itself, there is no objection to nominating lady officer from any other office at the same station.

(iv) Wide Publicity should be given to all appointments in Government, Advertisements should be issued in the language (s) spoken by large number of people of the State/UTs, apart from English and Hindi.

Earlier, the Govt had issued such guidelines for various Committees/Boards concerned with selection to Group C&D posts only.

Further, for Group'C' level Posts, having only basic qualifying requirements, information about vacancies for recruitment should also be disseminated through schools and colleges in that area, in addition to normal channels.

With a view to monitoring the trend in recruitment of women, all Ministries/ Departments are requested to submit a consolidated report including attached/ subordinate offices on the total number of posts and employees group- wise and gender wise as on 31.03.2009 latest by 31.08.2009. The consolidated annual position as on 31st March of every year may also be furnished thereafter by 30th May of that year.

All Central Ministries/Departments asked to redress public grievances within two months

The total number of cases of public grievance received in the Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Secretariat and Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances is 109620, 101995, 124052 and 52933 during the years 2006,2007, 2008 and 2009 (upto 30.6.2009) respectively.

Out of the above figures 28489, 29591, 37879 and 18267 were respectively forwarded during these years to various Ministries and Departments for appropriate action. Directions have already been issued to all Ministries/Departments to redress grievances of the citizens within a period of two months. Redress of grievance is primarily the responsibility of the concerned Ministries/Departments/organizations. However, overall status is reviewed periodically. With the introduction of a Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), citizen can view the status of his complaint on the web.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Shri Prithviraj Chavan in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Central government's steps to eradicate corruption

The Government is fully committed to implement its policy of "Zero Tolerance against Corruption¨ and is moving progressively to eradicate corruption from all spheres of life by improving transparency & accountability. Several steps have been taken to combat corruption and to improve the functioning of Government. These includes:

„ Issue of Whistle Blowers Resolution, 2004;

„ Enactment of Right to Information Act, 2005;

„ The pro-active involvement of Ministry/Department through Annual Action Plan on Vigilance as a preventive measures;

„ Issues of comprehensive instructions on transparency in tendering & contracting process by the CVC;

„ Instructions issued by the CVC advising the organizations to adopt integrity pact in major Government procurement activities;

„ India is amongst the countries who have signed the United National convention against Corruption;

„ Introduction of e-Governance and simplification of procedures and systems; and

„ Issue of Citizen Charters.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Shri Prithviraj Chavan in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Amendment to RTI Act

The Government proposes to strengthen right to information by suitably amending the laws to provide for disclosure by government in all non-strategic areas. In this regard, it is proposed to review the number of organizations in the second schedule to the Right to Information Act, 2005 and make rules for more disclosure of information by public authorities.

Government has received representations expressing doubts about the proposed amendments. Non-Governmental Organisations and Social activists will be consulted on the proposed amendments. However No time frame can be fixed for completion of the process.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Shri Prithviraj Chavan in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Income of NPS Trust to be exempt from income tax; also from DDT and STT

Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of Finance in his Budget Speech informed the Lok Sabha today that he proposes to exempt the income of New Pension System (NPS) Trust from the income tax and any dividend paid to this Trust from Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT). Similarly, all purchases sales of equity shares and derivatives by the NPS Trust will also be exempt from this Securities Transaction Tax (STT), he added.

The Finance Minister further proposed to enable self employed persons to participate in the NPS and avail of the tax benefits available thereto. Underlining that NPS will continue to be subjected to the Exempt-Exempt-Taxed (EET) method of tax treatment of savings, Shri Mukherjee said that it is proposed to provide necessary fiscal support to the NPS for the establishment this much needed social security system.

“The New Pension System is an important milestone in the development of a sustainable, efficient, voluntary and defined pension system in India”, Shri Mukherjee emphasized.

Was Election 2009 rigged?

The Election Commission has now officially taken up the investigation of charges of rigging and fraud through the Electronic Voting Machines.

Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla is sitting over a major scandal of a possible massive rigging of elections by manipulation of software of the Electronic Voting Machines.

But for the charge levelled by a former Delhi chief secretary five years senior to him in the Indian Administrative Service cadre, Chawla would have rejected such claims of rigging.

Omesh Saigal, a 1964 batch IAS officer of the Union Territory, stunned him with a presentation to force him to order an inquiry into any possibility of such a rigging.

Chawla is himself a Union Territory cadre IAS of 1969 batch.

Deputy Election Commissioner Balakrishnan has been asked to conduct the inquiry on the basis of a report handed over by Saigal to the CEC, with a software he got developed to show how the elections can be rigged.

Saigal, who is an Indian Institute of Technology alumni, has demanded an urgent check of the programme that runs the EVMs used in elections since 2004.

He demonstrated with his software that its manipulation ensured that one has to just key in a certain code number and that will ensure every fifth vote cast in a particular polling booth goes in favour of a certain candidate.

In his letter to the CEC, Saigal alleged that the software written onto the EVMs has never been checked by the Election Commission ever since these machines were manufactured than 6-7 years back.

His contention is that the EC merely relied on the certificates supplied by the manufacturers, the government-run BEL and ECIL. He alleged that these government firms had subcontracted private parties who actually provided these certificates.

"A public software audit of these machines from time to time, especially after and before an election, was a must to retain the credibility of the elections," Saigal affirmed, demanding that for the sake of transparency names and ownerships of these private companies must be disclosed, as also the details of the factories where they were actually manufactured.

The records retained in the factories must also be immediately taken over by the EC to prevent any tampering and to facilitate an audit, he said.

He also pointed out how, after nearly two years of deliberation, Germany's Supreme Court ruled last March that e-voting was unconstitutional because the average citizen could not be expected to understand the exact steps involved in the recording and tallying of votes. Earlier, Ireland had given up e-voting for similar reasons.

In the United States too, after considerable controversy the Federal Election Commission has come up in 2005 with detailed voting system guidelines which run into more than 400 pages.

Saigal said that it is noteworthy that not a single safeguard mentioned in these guidelines are in place in India.

Saigal said he had gone into all the safeguards built into the e-voting system in India with the help of former colleagues and IT experts and finds it both 'possible and plausible' to rig these machines and get a crooked result.

"If the credibility of the electoral process is to be ensured,pre- and post-election checks of the software now fused onto the chips of the EVMs is a must," Saigal said.

It is not that all the 10 lakh odd machines used in the poll need to be checked. If we take only those booths where one of the candidates has received 75 per cent of the votes and in constituencies where the
margin of the winner is less than 15,000, not more than 7,000-odd machines will need to be checked.

Saigal argued in his report that "if we cannot do this we must revert to the paper ballot."

"The need for a fair, free and transparent polling system transcends any reasons anyone may have to the contrary," he added.

USE OF HINDI IN BANKS (RBI MASTER CIRCULAR)

Acceptance of cheques drawn and signed in Hindi

(i) The offices of banks situated in Hindi speaking areas should display prominently in their Banking Halls notice-boards in Hindi and English indicating that the bank accepts cheques drawn/ signed in Hindi.

(ii) Cheques drawn, endorsed and signed in Hindi should be accepted for payment without observance of any additional formality.

(iii) The drawing officers of the Government offices whose specimen signatures are registered with the offices of the banks, should be permitted to use only one language, i.e. either Hindi or English, for the purpose of signing cheques.

Signature in Hindi on official documents

a) Official documents drawn up in English can be signed in Hindi. However, name of the signatory may be typed in English below the signature. Documents of financial nature (including pay bills) can also be signed in Hindi; the officer, should, however, record his signature in one script only on such documents in order to obviate chances of confusion or fraud.

b) The term “Official Documents” will include all notes, drafts/ fair copies of letters, sanctions/registers etc. wherein a person signs in his official capacity instead of his personal/individual capacity.

c) The official documents/correspondence can be signed in any language as the signature of a particular person is merely a symbol and it can be in any language.

NEIST (RRL Jorhat) selected

Imphal, July 03 2009:
The North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST), Lamphelpat substation has been selected as a centre for joint research programme between CSIR, New Delhi and the Third World Academy of Sciences.

Under this exchange programme, Godfrey Ngupula of Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute would do research programme on Lake Victoria, the largest lake of Africa under the supervision of Dr Huidrom Birkumar Singh, Scientist in-charge of NEIST substation, Lamphelpat, conveyed a press release.
Source: The Sangai Express

Compilation on instructions on mobility of personnel published

The Department of Pension and Pensioner's Welfare has brought out a compilation carrying all the instructions issued time to time on the mobility of personnel between Central Government and Central Autonomous Bodies, state government, Central Government to state autonomous bodies and vice versa. The instructions are brought out in a brochure and ready-to-use form.
To View Click Here

New TA entitlement for Shatabadi (EC)/ Rajdhani (FC)

Representation of Women Members on the various Committees/ Boards concerned with selection to Group C&D posts in Central Government.

Benefit of reservation to persons with disability who acquire disability after entering into Govt. service.

UTN not mendatory for filing it returns

PIB
The Central Board of Direct Taxes have further decided that the Notification No. 31 of 2009 dated 25.3.2009 amending or substituting Rules 30, 31, 31A and 31AA of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 shall be kept in abeyance for the time being.

Taxpayers filing their income tax returns for assessment year (AY) 2009-10, or any other earlier AY, may continue to file their returns without mentioning the Unique Transaction Number (UTN) as required under the said Notification. The filing of such returns shall be treated as valid and in compliance to the requirements under section 139 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Further, the date from which the Notification No. 31 / 2009 shall become applicable on tax deducted at source (TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS) and deposited during the current financial year shall be notified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes subsequently.

All deductors / collectors of TDS / TCS may continue to deposit their TDS / TCS and file their quarterly TDS / TCS returns as per procedure existing prior to issuance of Notification No.31 / 2009 dated 25.3.2009.

BSC/BY/GN-154/09

Prithviraj Chavan announces standing committee for implementation of recommendations of task force for women in science

PIB

Government has constituted a Standing Committee to oversee the timely implementation of the recommendations of the task force for women in science. Announcing this at a press conference in New Delhi, Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Prithviraj Chavan said that the Committee under his chairmanship has 18 members. He said that the task force has submitted his report which is being studied and all feasible actions will be completed in a time bound manner. The Minister also said that a sub-committee will be constituted for development of women friendly policies and practical support systems inclusive of crèche, campus housing, transport, facilities for the elderly, mentoring, etc. Earlier, Shri Chavan interacted with several women scientists at the Women Scientists Meet 2009 organized by CSIR in coordination with DST and DBT. Some of the other outcome of the interactions are:

• Efficiency of existing gender sensitive scheme will be studied and actions taken to enhance their efficiency through revision of parameters and strengthening of implementation systems.

• A Nationwide survey of the reason for the pipeline leakage will be commissioned.

• Attempts will be made to make gender audit in scientific establishments obligatory: webpage information should carry statement of graduated goals and set up monitoring goals.

• Addressing the problems rather than achieving numerical goals will be the priority.

• Special schemes will be developed to avoid under employment of women.

Prof. S.K. Brahmachari, DG, CSIR, Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, DST and Dr. M.K. Bhan, Secretary, DBT were also present on the occasion.

PRA/SKK

Research labs (CSIR) in line

A GROWING trend in recent times is national research laboratories and R&D institutions seeking deemed university status so that they are able to award degrees (mainly PhD) in their own names.

Institutions declared to be deemed universities by the University Grants Commission are essentially of two kinds. One is the large number of unregulated and largely private-run teaching shops with little research component. They have acquired the deemed university status to gain degree awarding authority.

The other is institutions involved in research in specific disciplines. These institutions, with hardly any teaching programmes besides orientation-level graduate courses towards the doctoral programme, do not fulfil the objectives of a regular university. Thus many argue that they do not deserve to be granted deemed university status.

Many prominent research institutions have become deemed universities in the recent past. Among them, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, and the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Manesar, Haryana, achieved the status in 2002, while the Department of Atomic Energy and its constituent institutes and laboratories got it in 2005.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is seeking to become one as an umbrella organisation of all its constituent laboratories. Its proposal, made on September 29, 2002, has been conditionally recommended to be granted the status.

It is curious that the CSIR or the DAE wants to be a deemed university. One can understand that individual laboratories having special academic programmes, such as the TIFR, would like to be able to award degrees given the problems of university-institute linkages. But the entire umbrella organisation becoming one would seem illogical.

“Laboratories can offer degree-level programmes of a holistic nature in association with other institutions and can be recognised as universities. However, the organisations or departments themselves should not be treated as universities,” says the Yash Pal Committee report.

Until recently, these institutions were awarding PhD degrees through their affiliations with universities. The rigid structures of universities and their low administrative efficiency and below par academic calibre are the reasons institutions cite to acquire independent authority.

In a guest editorial in the journal Current Science in 2005, S.C. Lakhotia of Banaras Hindu University argued that these linkages failed because in this arrangement the university system did not gain either academically or financially.

“Ideally,” wrote Lakhotia, “scientists in research institutions and university departments should have developed academic linkages for joint supervision system so that the university also owned the research work. The research institutions took the university system only as a ‘post-office’.... Such an arrangement where one partner only gives and the other only receives cannot obviously continue for very long.... Recognising research institutes as ‘deemed universities’… is a negation of the original objective for which the dual system of universities and research institutes was set in place in the first instance…. The present mess in the system of higher education cannot be solved by research institutes ‘breaking away’ from the university system…. By creating more and more ‘deemed universities’ one would only help the other universities to be ‘doomed’.”

“I have this apprehension as well,” said S.K. Joshi, former Director-General of the CSIR, “that even the existing linkages would further weaken by seeking deemed university status for the CSIR. But we tried very hard for the National Physical Laboratory [NPL] to develop joint academic programmes, joint supervisors for PhDs, etc., but nothing worked.”

“We suffer from national laboratories-institutions syndrome,” wrote P.N. Srivastava, former Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Current Science, commenting on the issue of research institutions seeking deemed university status. “The standard of science in the country will never go up by taking care of national laboratories and may be utmost a score of universities,” he said.

“The present demand for seeking deemed university status could… be interpreted as an exercise to legitimise the current situation of the national laboratories and redefine their goals,” wrote N. Raghuram, a biologist of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, in an opinion piece in the journal. If the institutes are able to fulfil all the roles – teaching, curriculum development and examination – they may as well become full-fledged universities and work with comparable budgets, leaving aside the pretension of being national laboratories created for a different purpose, he said.

“The issue of deemed universities is just one of the many facets of the growing dichotomy between universities and national laboratories.”

Courtesy: R. Ramachandran (FRONTLINE)

Interview of Prof Yash Pal with FRONTLINE

The idea of deemed universities has come to such a stage that even R&D institutions such as the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) are aspiring to become deemed universities. The TIFR is one, the entire Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has also become, the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre….

I was at the new space institute of ISRO [Indian Space Research Organisation]. They have set up an institute. But again I told them, if you want to be able to give degrees, nothing wrong. Please try to become a university.

As regards the CSIR, I have nothing against individual laboratories developing an academic programme, but the CSIR as a whole, I don’t understand. It is babus becoming part of a university. A research laboratory could become a deemed university. This is not bad because, you have equipment, you have the people, you set up a proper programme, courses, then it is fine. If the CSIR headquarters decides the central courses, then it is not a university. And, similarly, if the DAE headquarters determines the courses, then the bureaucracy takes over.

Workshop on Restructuring of Common cadre of CSIR

Another workshop, good, at least we were away from our desks for one day, got involved in some game activity, supplemented with "a sumptuous meals and high tea". Oh god! at least for one day we were spared from not being chased by the scientists, a day of luxury , which we can't afford in our daily mundane life. Sounds interesting or irrational , either way , today first batch of CCO's of Delhi Labs & Hq participated into the workshop, subject of which is very close to their heart, may be it is only because of "carrear progression" and "cadre merger or demerger" issue.
The workshop was inaugurated with a thought provoking lecture by our very knowledgeable, esteemed, newly appointed J.S (Admin.), Dr.K.Jayakumar. I strongly feel that he is one of the leaders we will be proud of, having him at CSIR. He was assisted by Ms. Kutty, a senior retired bureaucrat, who has been appointed as consultant by CSIR to revamp CSIR administration and some senior HR professional from Hewitt Associates, Ms Sharmistha (Head at Hewitt Academy for Strategic HR, India) and Mr.Shiv.

From onset, the core of workshop was defined as complete revamping of CSIR Babulog bureaucratic structure, their role re-definition, evolution of babulog in a new awatar, administrative process re-definition. And the purpose of the workshop is to identify the areas of change and process of change by inviting ideas from every stakeholders, and identification of those CCO's (of course voluntarily) who can help in bringing out change.

After some discussion, the leader and motivators found that we as CCO's know that change is inevitable and we are bound to be a part of it. Who will tell them that we always felt the need of change and growth, as far I can remember, both at carrear progression and process automation front. In the year 2001 Mr.D.K.Chakraborty the then Dy.FA presented his dream of process automation of accounts procedures. Then during 2004-05 a plan of e-grid was floated upon and feedback from various labs were called upon before tenders for 'expression of interest' were invited. Recently too, our FA Ms.Sheila Sangwan stressed on the need for latest and modern ERP software for finance processes automation. In a nutshell we always need changes in these fronts and are eager for it but the question is only when it will come. The difference I felt this time, in the present approach, from earlier ones, is that the question of carrear progression and, cadre merger/ demerger and process of automation are merged in a bigger and one idea. The other difference is the pace of approach for cadre restructuring and cadre revamping. Here lies the catch point, the basic motive of organizing the workshop.... is it really for revamping and reorganization of administration at CSIR or just some shadow exercise to implement some hidden motives expressed at workshop in " between the line" statements.

Anyway some predetermined groups of CCO's were formed on and tasked with to came up with ideas of change of they desire, with logic behind it, how to effectively implement it and how the group can help in achieving the change. Apart from some diverse ideas, every group is unanimous about need of adoption of best practices, better carrear progression, better training (MoU have been singed with Amity and Manipal for providing MBA degree to staff of CSIR), specific role definition of CCO's, process automation, incentive for performance and some fringe benefits on the line of CSIR scientific staff.

On the question of fringe benefits, there comes the story of apples and oranges. It was reminded to CCO's that apples and oranges are two different category of fruits and they can't be treated at par and should not be mixed together. To be treated at par with apples the oranges must specialize themselves as MBA, CA or CS. Who will tell them that the oranges do have their own benefits by providing immunity and flexibility in system. It also helps in normalization of pressure(flow of establishment function) and prevent heart attack(collapse of system).

Some other aspects of restructuring and revamping were discussed at the workshop and also will be discussed on at some other labs in future also. But one thing I am very sure about that our new J.S and his team is very genuine and honest in their approach to problem and also welcome free flow of information and ideas.

One more thing I would like to mention here that by expressing my observation on my Blog is to provide alternate, informal and new platform of communication on the subject area as it can be accessed by any one 24 x 7 for discussion , i feel that this kind of a platform is still lacking in the present approach although JS (Admin.) did mentioned its need . During the workshop for the first time I did mention about my Blog, to which I got a positive response. Some seniors who had viewed my Blog occasionally with the help of fellow colleagues expressed their inability to view it periodically. So it's my humble request to all the tech friendly followers of blog to kindly guide them in bookmarking the blog and how to update it regularly and how to put comment on any post. I am looking forward for it and appreciate all your encouragement.

Last but not the least we also witnessed the gracious presence of our esteemed & honorable DG-CSIR, Dr. Samir K. Brahmachari and his noble, simple, straight and blessing thoughts. That came as a great source of encouragement for all of us.

CPWD clarification regarding contractor's profit and overheads , dt 9/6/2009