STATE WIDE AREA NETWORK

(SWAN)

BACKGROUND  

Madhya Pradesh situated in the central India having an area of around 308000 Sq. Km.  The state's administration operates through 48 districts, 272 tehsils and 313 Blocks. 

In order to avail financial and social benefits of Information Technology, the establishment of State Wide Area Network (SWAN) has been envisaged.  The SWAN will provide primary backbone for communication of voice, data and video though out the state and will be an effective tool for implementation of e-Governance Projects. 

SWAN - The purpose 

Government wishes to fulfill the following Objectives through SWAN  : 

1.       To ensure anytime and anywhere dissemination of Government services and information related to government.

2.       To establish a reliable network for Vertical and Horizontal connectivity throughout the State.

3.       To reduce the cost of Communication between government departments at different locations.

4.       To provide secure Network infrastructure to enable Electronic Transfer of sensitive data, payments etc.

5.       To improve the capacity for disaster management 

e-Governance services required to be delivered to the citizens are widely varie in nature for different departments.  The following are pre-requisites for effective e-Governance service delivery.   

1.               Development of applications of various government departments alongwith backend computerization.

2.               Service delivery platform for citizens (Common Service Centers).

3.               Reliable communication network for providing connectivity between service delivery outlets and government departments (State Wide Area Network).

4.               State level data centre for data warehousing and hosting of application software. 

Implementation of SWAN 

All the block Head Quarters andTehsil HQs shall be District HQs which in turn shall be connected to the State HQ through optical fiber network.  This will enable data, voice and video communication between Government offices anywhere in the State.  For this purpose, one Point of Presence (POP) shall be established  in each Block/Tehsil/District HQ where the necessary equipments will be installed.   The Horizontal offices shall be connected to these POPs through wireless or wired line connections.  Every POP will have UPS and Generator for power backup.  A minimum bandwidth of 2 Mbps shall be provided at each Block HQ which will be scaleable in future.  Once, the SWAN is established all the Government departments will not be required to establish individual Wide Area Networks.  The implementation of the SWAN Project will improve the communication between Government to Government and Government to Citizens (G2C) and reduce the cost of communication substantially.    

A pictorial view of the SWAN network connectivity between different locations is given below :

The Project is being implemented on BOOT Basis.  The BOOT operator is being selected through a transparent bidding process and bidding process is being expected to be over by December, 2008.                                                                         TOP^^

                                 Common Services Centers

(CSC)

Rural Citizen interacts with the Government through Kiosks

An Initiative of Government of India & Government of Madhya Pradesh

What is Common Services Center? 

A Common Services Center, or CSC in short, is envisaged as a medium to improve the living standard of common man in the rural parts of India, by enabling  electronic delivery of  information, knowledge, skills and services which they need the most. It is an initiative of Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India.  CSC is expected to reduce the time and cost involved in obtaining some of rural services such as agri/ farm inputs & prices, weather forecast, public grievance redressal, government to citizen information & services etc.  

When fully functional, there will be 100,000 CSCs spread over rural India. This means that one in every six villages of India, will be part of a large national network of digital services. Out of these, about 9230 CSCs are envisaged to be set up in Madhya Pradesh. 

The CSC is designed as a one-stop-centre for government related services along with a bouquet of several business related services. A beneficiary of the CSC will be able to enjoy a wide variety of services at a nominal cost, in his village.  

Why CSC?

For a country like ours, which is big, introduction of digital medium is perceived to be the best available solution for better governance. CSC is the front end of a long and complex process of reaching better governance and other essential value-added services. CSC is important as it can become part of several other initiatives, which are aimed to connect all States and Union Territories. Existing digital services models are either limited in geographical reach or confined to just a few services or few locations. CSC, on the other hand, will be the first integrated model of government services and other value-added services.  

Services of CSC

Common Services Centers can offer a large basket of services through e-medium. Along with this, the CSC proposes to offer useful information for all possible segments of the society be it, students, farmers, senior citizens, unemployed youth, businessmen, women, self help groups etc. For example, a farmer can make use of CSC to learn more about agricultural/ farm inputs,  prices, weather conditions, crop insurance etc. He may also use the CSC platform to buy an insurance policy, if wishes so.

Infrastructure at CSC

There are two major components of the CSC infrastructure - Physical Infrastructure and Digital Infrastructure:

1.      Physical Infrastructure would include the site and space for the CSC as well as other infrastructure like furniture, UPS, communication equipment etc.

2.      Digital Infrastructure would comprise of equipment, such as PCs, Printers, Scanners, Projectors, Digital Camera, Software, etc.

 Implementation Structure

1.      At the first level would be the agency designated by the State- the State Designated Agency (SDA) - to facilitate program implementation. In Madhya Pradesh, MP State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (MPSEDC) has been designated.

2.      At the second level would be the Service Center Agencies (SCAs). The SCAs would be the prime drivers of the CSC Scheme and owners of CSC business in the State. SCAs would be responsible to set up and operate CSCs. SCA would also be responsible for overall sustainability of the CSC scheme.

3.      At the third level would be the Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). SCAs would manage a network of VLEs who in turn would manage the operational business of the CSC at the village level. The VLEs operate under guidance from SCA. 

In addition, Govt. of India has designated IL&FS as the National Level Service Agency (NLSA) to support SDA as well as SCAs in implementation of CSC Scheme. 

Stakeholders

The CSC Concept is woven around, active usage by the people to benefit themselves exploiting this platform. Government, both Central and State are the stakeholders as they play a big role in the connectivity backbone and future direction for the project. NLSA is the facilitator for partnerships and networking. Service Center Agencies (SCA) could be a company or an institution or NGO that would operate the business model for the state. Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) will be the next layer of stakeholders who deal with the end-user. They are important in popularizing and generating business for CSC.

Business Model:

Government of India structured the CSC Scheme on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, for ensuring commercial feasibility and success of the Scheme on long term basis. This model puts responsibility squarely on all the stakeholders. Under PPP, both government and other stakeholders work together on a model to bring about better efficiency. PPP works as an inclusive model in which private entrepreneurs associate themselves with the delivery of government services under an agreed fee-based structure.  

Roll out of CSCs

Based Government of India guidelines and framework, Government of Madhya Pradesh is in the process of selecting SCAs through a transparent tendering process. SCAs in turn will select VLEs. 

CSC Scheme in Madhya Pradesh

Government of Madhya Pradesh is working on several enablers for effective implementation of CSC Scheme such as State Wide Area Work, Computerization of Mission Mode Projects, State Data Center, MP Online Portal etc. Initially, CSCs are expected to provide the following services-

 Departments with large public interface should leverage the benefits of CSCs for electronic dissemination of information/ delivery of services to the rural citizens. Department of Information Technology, GoMP is interacting with the key Government Departments and with other stake holders of the Scheme for implementation of CSC Scheme in MP.                                             TOP^^