In Tripura, IT activities were initiated in a serious manner in April, 1999, with setting up of a separate State Directorate of Information Technology (DIT) and Tripura State Computerisation Agency (TSCA).
IT infrastructure:
Tripura State Wide Area Network (SWAN):
SWAN is a State-wide computer (data/ voice/ video) network set up to the Block Level for running of e-governance applications across the State. There are 69 Points of Presence (POPs). IP Phones for voice communication are installed in almost all sites. The network is working smoothly. The Project has been implemented by NIC and BSNL is the bandwidth provider. Tripura was the sixth State in the country and first State in the Eastern and North Eastern Region to complete SWAN. All SWAN POPs were initially connected through 2 Mbps leased lines. However, in view of increase in usage of the network, the bandwidth has been increased up to 100 Mbps at District level and up to 10 Mbps at Sub-Division/ Block level SWAN POPs.
Agartala City Area Network (ACAN):
Agartala City Area Network (ACAN) has been setup to connect different offices at Agartala through OFC backbone. The ACAN is envisaged as the backbone network for delivering various e-Governance applications and information to citizens through data, video and voice communications. 23 Offices have been connected so far. ACAN is fully integrated with SWAN. More offices like New Secretariat Complex, IGM Hospital, Cancer Hospital, New Agartala Municipal Council Office, etc have been connected.
Horizontal Extension of SWAN:
Tripura is one of the pioneer states in the country to build in successful State wide IT infrastructure in the form of State Wide Area Network (SWAN) covering SHQ, DHQ, SDHQ and BHQ. As further enhancement to this initiative, Government of Tripura developed a project called Horizontal Extension of SWAN (HSWAN) to extend the network horizontally covering various departmental offices at District and Block level. Initially 90 nos. of various offices have been targeted for providing Data, Voice and Video services through RF(Radio Frequency) , OFC (Optical fiber cable) and Ethernet Technology. As on 31st March'2016, 53 nos. of Departmental offices has been connected under the project.
State Data Centre (SDCs):
Tripura State Data Center (TSDC) is one of the key elements of the IT infrastructure created in the State under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). TSDC is the Central Repository for all e-Governance applications and data. TSDC is a key element of e-Government Initiatives & businesses for delivering services to the citizens with greater reliability, availability and serviceability. TSDC provides better operations & management control and minimizes overall cost of Data Management, IT Management, Deployment and other costs.
TSDC project is implemented by Tripura State Computerization Agency (TSCA), a society under Directorate of Information Technology, setup in the premises of Directorate of Information Technology, ITI Road, Indranagar, Agartala, 799006. TSDC has been operational since 24th December2010 in the state. TSDC has created different platform for catering the need of hosting services of different applications. TSDC is provisioned SAN Storage system with 130 TB RAW capacity. TSDC also provisioned Tape Library based backup system. TSDC is manned by 24 x 7 basis for its operations & maintenance.
Currently, around 100 applications and websites of around 50 different State Govt. Departments / organizations are hosted and running in TSDC (like CCTNS-Police MMP, Land Records application, Election Applications and web services, RDMIS - a Web Application of RD Dept., RTI Tripura Application, Human Resource Management System - HRMS application and Treasury Application of Finance Dept. etc). UID data is also stored here. Many other departmental applications and websites are in pipeline.
TSDC is ISO 27001 (ISMS - Information Security Management System) certified for its security practices and ISO 20000-1 (SMS - Service Management System) certified for its operation management.
Disaster Recovery site of TSDC is implemented at National Data Center (NDC), New Delhi through storage base replication solution.
Cloud Enablement of TSDC in under implementation.
State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) & State Portal (SP):
"State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) & State Portal (SP)" project is for delivering the Govt. services through a single interface in the form of Portal by leveraging the common infrastructure (CSCs, SWAN, SDC etc). This project enabled citizens to download forms and submit their applications electronically from their own locality, which would be than routed through SSDG to the respective department. Citizen can also check status of their application.
Under the project, 21 e-Forms, e-Form application, Central Application, etc have been developed and supplied necessary hardware, etc at Data Center as well as field offices of different departments, where there services would be delivered under SSDG online platform.
In first phase 8 services of 5 Departments were launched in a limited manner under SSDG online platform. These are Application for Water connection under AMC, New Electricity Connection under TSECL, Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension (IGNOAP) & National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) & Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension (IGNWP) & Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension (IGNDP) under SWSE, Entrepreneurs' memorandum for setting up Micro, Small or Medium Enterprise - II under I&C, Application for Loan under TIDC.
In the second phase, 4 services of 4 Departments has been launched State wide under SSDG online platform. These are "Merit and Sanskrit Scholarships" under School Education, "Application for Skill Development Training" under Employment Exchange & Manpower Planning, "Application for Factory Registration" under Factory & Boilers Organisation, "Application for Disability/Medical certificates" under Health Department.
The Content Management Service (CMS) based State Portal (https://tripura.gov.in) has been developed and implemented by NIC.
e- District:
e-District is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) which also falls under the pillar no. 5 (e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services) of Digital India programme. e-District aims at electronic delivery of identified high volume citizen centric services (G2C), at District and Sub-divisional levels. e-District provisions for seamless integration of various offices like Tehsils, Revenue Circles, Blocks, o/o SDMs and o/o DMs for providing services to the citizens through a common online delivery interface.
Directorate of Information Technology (DIT), Govt. of Tripura has implemented e-District in Tripura and as on 31-March-2016 total 16 (sixteen) such services have been launched throughout the State. Citizen can avail these e-services either at Govt. Offices or directly over internet. DIT is now working towards rolling out 5 more services under e-District to make a bunch of total 21 services under one umbrella framework. DIT
has also taken initiative to make e-District services available through Common Service Centres (CSCs) which will make e-services easily accessible at each GP level.
Capacity Building:
Capacity Building Scheme (CB Scheme) initiative was taken towards building adequate and relevant capacities of the Govt. functionaries dealing with e-Gov Project. The Project components include: Support for capacity building/ training programs for State Govt. employees and IT expert man power support in the form of State e-Mission Team(SeMT). Presently, 5 SeMT consultants have been deployed by NISG in Tripura out of total sanctioned strength of 7 consultants and remaining two consultants would be joining shortly. Under this project so far, we have organized 12 training programmes and trained 560 govt. employees.
Under Digital India Programme, Capacity Building Phase-II has been approved by the Govt. of India. High level training programs under CB-II are being conducted centrally at the National Level by NeGD at different location. Till date, 3 persons has been nominated under this project. Under this project, training on basic computer courses (Course of Computer Concepts-CCC) is also being imparted to government employees and we have received nomination for 360 candidates from different departments for CCC training. So far, we have conducted training for four batches (20 candidates each batch). Remaining fund of the project would be utilized for operational expenditure of SeMT and setting up of District Level ICT Training Centers.
Common Service Centres:
Common Service Centers (CSCs) are the outlets at the village level which were setup with the objective to provide online Govt. services and other B2C services to citizen at their locality, 145 CSCs have been setup at Panchayet Level and 83 CSCs have been setup at SDM/BDO Offices. Presently, these CSCs are providing different services like SBI Banking Service, Aadhaar Card related services, PVC Voter ID Card printing, Electricity Bill etc. Initiative has been taken to provide e-District services and ROR services of Land Records through CSCs.
Under Digital India Programme, CSC 2.0 scheme has been approved by GoI. Under the scheme, it has been envisaged to setup CSC at every Gram Panchayet/Village Committee in Tripura. DMs would be floating EoI for identification of VLEs very shortly. We have already appointed one State Level Manger at DIT and recruitment of District Level Managers (two for each District) will also be recruited.
National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM):
Under National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) total 6666 beneficiaries in phase I and 30000 beneficiaries in phase II have to be trained in Tripura to make them IT literate. Objective is to provide digital literacy and education to the citizen including Anganwadi and ASHA Workers and Authorised rations dealers, so that the non-IT literate
citizens are trained to become IT literate so as to enable them to actively and effectively participate in the democratic and developmental process and also enhance their livelihood.
To implement the project 15 Training Partners have been engaged in Tripura. Presently, there are total 327 Training Centers including 145 CSCs. Till date 50166 beneficiaries have been enrolled, 34881 beneficiaries have been trained and 8904 beneficiaries have successfully passed the examination.
Under this project, fund is directly released to Training partners by Government of India.
Apart from these initiatives, other departments have also implemented various e-Governance Applications. Some of these initiatives are given below:
e-Governance:
e-Hospital (Hospital Management System):
It is workflow-based web-enabled patient-centric comprehensive IT solution for Agartala Govt. Medical College & Hospital, developed by NIC. It has a number of modules including Patient Registration (OPD/IPD), Clinics, Billing/ Cash, Medical Records, Radiology, Blood Bank, Laboratory, Ward/ICU/Cabin Management, Pharmacy, OT Management, Birth/Death Record, Administration, etc. Agartala Govt. Medical College & Hospital implemented the solution in 2004. NIC is popularizing the solution as generic application software for Govt. hospitals in other states. The project got e-World 2011 award.
Tele-ophthalmology Centres (Vision Centres):
Tele-ophthalmology (Vision) Centres have been set up at Block levels to provide eye-care to patients at door-steps. These Centres are linked to IGM Hospital through SWAN infrastructure. Through these Centres, the patients in remote areas get the benefit of consultation with specialists in IGM Hospital. The first Vision Centre was set up in Melaghar Block in April 2007 and have now been setup in 40 Blocks.
Tele-medicine Centres:
The Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India, sanctioned a Project in 2005 for connecting 17 Sub-divisional Hospitals/ CHCs/ PHCs to GBP Hospital at Agartala through Tele-medicine infrastructure. 10 Tele-medicine Centres have been made operational these are at Gandacherra, Chhailengta, Amarpur, Kanchanpur, Kumarghat, Khowai, Kathalia, Belonia, Melaghar & Nutanbazar.
Online Blood Donor Information System:
It is a web-enabled application which helps the citizens with regards to blood banks. A citizen can (i) search for the donors of his/ her required blood group in a particular area (ii) see the stock status of blood in various blood banks and (iii) register as a voluntary donor.
Health Booking System:
This is a web-enabled application which provides a facility to the patients in remote areas to get advance booking for various diagnostic tests and specialist consultations in the State Hospital.
Energy Billing System:
To increase efficiency in the billing system and to improve the transparency, computerized electricity billing system has been adopted in the State. It is a web-based application developed by NIC. Billing and consumer details are available on internet in respect of 6 sub-divisions of Agartala.
e-Pourasabha (Agartala Municipal Council):
It is a work-flow based application developed by NIC and includes Modules for Property Tax, Water Tax, Touji Collections, Birth and Death Registration, Trade License, etc. The citizens can access details of property tax and water tax, birth & death registrations, etc. on web. Facilitation Centre at Agartala Municipal Council is providing IT enabled service to citizens.
Vahan Sarathi (Transport):
The functions of Transport Department have been computerized through this Project of M/o Road Transport & Highways, Govt. of India. The implementation of the Project started in 2004. NIC has developed this web-enabled application. The Project covers modules for Vehicle Registration, issue of Driving License, issue of Road Permit, issue of Vehicle Fitness Certificate, Road Tax, etc. Smart Cards are being issued for vehicle registration and driving license. Efforts are being made to start online payment of taxes.
Computerisation of Land Records and Registration:
The project for computerization of land records was initiated in 1991-92 in North District under scheme of M/o Rural Development, Department of Land Resources and the same was extended to other Districts in 1993-94. The application has been developed by NIC and updated from time to time. Currently, JAMI Version 3.0 is being used. The project has been implemented in all 45 DC circles. The process of digitization of maps also been completed. Regarding computerization of Registration, the project was initiated in 2006 in 4 registration offices of West District, namely, Bishalgarh, Sadar, Khowai and Sonamura, with application called 'CORD' developed by NIC. The project has now been implemented in all 17 Registration Offices and registration process has also been integrated with the computerized land record database.
e-Panchayat:
This is one of the State Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), aims at taking the computerization process up to Gram Panchayat level. Panchayat Department is implementing the Project. The services to be offered under the Project include issue of various Certificates, applications for Pensions, NREGA Job Card, Ration Card, RoR, Utility Bills, etc.
Finance (Commercial taxes, Treasury/Budget):
The following initiatives have been taken:
Commercial Taxes: Currently, VATS of application developed by NIC, Karnataka under State MMP for Commercial Taxes is being used by Taxes & Excise organization for online Registration, Permit and Return and Payment etc.
Treasury/Budget: Currently, the application developed by RITES is being used in Treasury for Budget management. Human Resource Management System (HRMS) software has also been developed by Finance Department for management of Payroll, Leave, Service Record etc.
Other e-Governnance applications:
The following are some other important applications implemented or being implemented in the State:
CCTNS: The Home (Police) Department is implementing the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) Project. The application has already been operationalized through all police stations.
e-Procurement: RD, PWD (R&B) and IT Department are using e-procurement application. Other departments are also in the process of using the e-procurement application.
Social Welfare: The Social Welfare Department is using application like ICDS MIS System, Budget Control System and Pensions System for improving the functioning of their Department.
Source: Economic Review of Tripura 2015-16