Nexus of Good: Leveraging technology

Technology can be a gamechanger in governance and administration. Fortunately, a number of young officers are making use of such tools to bring about improvements in delivering services. Though the true beneficiary of such initiatives is the common man, in the initial phase, it is more of an internal management. Technology tools are available with us. The key question is about the attitude and the ability to appreciate the potential of such tools.

Karn Satyarthi, a young officer belonging to the 2016 batch of the IAS, was posted in Gumla, Jharkhand, last year in October. Before this, he had spent a year as a probationer in Deoghar, and two years as SDM in Sahibganj district. In both his previous assignments, he had observed that civil assets worth hundreds of crores lay dead and decaying or unused for years, resulting in enormous loss in terms of opportunity cost. Karn felt that this was also true of large projects where huge costs are incurred on account of delay and 'decay' but these are at least in the limelight and have some monitoring mechanism like the Project Monitoring Group (PMG). However, smaller projects suffer even more as they are rarely on the radar of authorities. With a view to addressing this issue in the context of smaller projects, a portal, www.gramsampati.in, has been conceived in Gumla. The district administration is trying to achieve two objectives. First, to create an asset register that can account for depreciation and serve as institutional memory. And second, to monitor ongoing projects for timely completion — just like Project Monitoring Group monitors systemically important infrastructure projects.

Concept 

The driver behind www.gramsampati.in is the growth in web-based application technologies over the last few years. Gumla district administration has started preparing a digital asset register where all completed and ongoing civil asset projects will be geo-tagged and marked; a single click of mouse will then fetch the picture of any civil asset and information on 20 data points like start date, end date, estimated amount, purpose, ownership etc. related to the asset. For ongoing-projects, a monthly update will become available for both physical and financial progress of the project.

Advantages 

The digital asset register will help in many ways:

1. Assisting in monitoring projects and curtailing project delays.

2. Measuring performance of myriad engineering departments like NREP, Special Division, Building Construction Department, ZIla Parishad etc.

3. Assessing contractor performance which can then be leveraged for technical specifications.

4. Avoiding duplication of effort.

5. Evaluating geographical distribution of government expenditure and helping achieve a balance in that regard.

6. Making informed decisions about reviving assets as their depreciated value will be available.

7. Detecting fake assets since all assets will be geo-tagged and will be in the public domain.

8. Providing analytical tools to optimise the use of civil assets.

9. Convergence between various schemes of the GOI as well as GOJ.

10. Key information on civil assets will be readily available.

A beginning has already been made. More than 750 completed assets and 61 ongoing projects have been onboarded on the digital asset register.

Impact

During the first phase, the aim was to get a proof done for the concept to demonstrate that the idea was technologically achievable. However, the results exceeded expectations. During the process of data collection alone, projects worth more than Rs 39.36 crores could be identified for revival. Many of these unused or stalled works have already been revived or revival has been planned keeping strict timelines. Ways to converge schemes like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee National Rurban Mission, 15th Finance Commission, District Mineral Fund Trust as well as Critical Gap funding through GOJ's untied funds have been discovered. Quite interestingly, some of the education department's assets were geo-tagged outside the district's boundaries. This was a clear example of either carelessness or mischief (on enquiry it was found that it was carelessness). Fake geotags (all these cases will be pursued to their logical conclusion) also came to notice.

Future plans

Buoyed by the efficiency gains achieved in the first phase of gramsampati.in, there is a plan to expand the project further. The aim is to replicate an Enterprise Resource Plan like structure for all completed and ongoing projects in the district. This would include enhanced analytical tools to help detect slack or sub-optimal use of resources. In the long-run, assets — other than civil assets — like land can also be included in the portfolio. Currently, this assets register is focussed primarily on improving G2G procedures with citizens using it for the purpose of information. In the medium-term, it can also be opened to citizens for registering grievances as well as marking ghost assets, assets in need of maintenance etc. Maintaining and updating a high-performance web application with high traffic might be a challenge in the medium term.

What is happening in this remote district, Gumla, can truly be transformational. A beginning has been made and the initial results are quite encouraging. As mentioned earlier, the problem was not the non-availability of technology. It is available. Worthy of appreciation is the attitude shown by this young officer, Karn Satyarthi who under the able guidance of the Deputy Commissioner, Shishir Sinha is bringing about a change through use of technology. Taken to its logical conclusion, it can be transformational. What is happening in Gumla is a wonderful example of Nexus of Good. Here a model is being evolved that can easily be replicated and scaled.

Views expressed are personal