Page 24 - Informatics, January 2022

From the States
Kerala State
Delivering E-governance to the Door Step
Edited by REUBAN K
NIC Kerala is playing a
pivotal role in bringing IT
close to the citizens with
its ICT initiatives. Had a
significant role in empowering
the State Govt during the
COVID pandemic with the IT
enabled services provided
in mission mode. NIC has
taken a remarkable
advancement in mobile
application development
with various citizen centric
services including National
level Messaging App (SANDES).
We also house National
level mobile competency &
Application Security centres.
Mohan Krishnan P V
Dy. Director General & SIO PRICE software system, in which contractors can
mohan.pv@nic.in
M. Asir Edwin
Dy. Director General NICDSign (A Cross-Platform, Browser-
asiredwin.m@nic.in
Gopakumar.G
Technical Director
kumar.gopa@nic.in
24 informatics.nic.in January 2022
erala, popularly known as “God’s Own
Country” is situated in the south-western
Kend of the Indian subcontinent bordered
by the states of Karnataka to the north and
Tamil Nadu to the east and by the Arabian Sea
to the south and west; it also surrounds Mahe, a
segment of the UT of Puducherry. Kerala has the
highest levels of literacy in India. Kerala is one
of the emerging IT destinations and has made
its presence with high IT literacy, grass root level
internet connectivity in urban and rural area and
its contribution of highly skilled IT professionals
all over the world. NIC has been integral to eGovernance
NIC state unit was established in 1987. We have programs of Government of Kerala since
14 district units, Data Centre, Network Operation beginning. The partnership of state
Centre, NKN POP, Center of Competence for government with NIC has deep foundation
Mobile App Development established in Kannur for successful and effective rolling out of
district, Regional Centre of Excellence for projects including for eOffice, edistrict
Application Security (RCOEAS) established at in Revenue Department applications,
Thiruvananthapuram. NIC was instrumental in financial management & HR systems
bringing IT to the masses by undertaking major operational in Finance Department which
e-governance and citizen centric applications. are qualitatively supported by technical
It provides Gigabit connectivity to around teams of NIC. We expect for enhanced
100 institutes in Kerala in addition to the technical strength of NIC Kerala to meet
our growing requirements in the IT and e-
Videoconferencing/ email/ Network/ Data Centre governance landscape.
services.
ICT Initiatives in the State
PRICE (Project Information & Cost BISHWANATH SINHA, IAS
Estimation) Principal Secretary, IT
PRICE software is a revolutionary initiative of
Government of Kerala which aims to unify the Government of Kerala
work methodology and rates across the state
irrespective of Department and Organizations
who use public money for infrastructure works. capable of signing PDF files with visible signature
The enterprise version of PRICE application stamping in the document. NICDSign solution is
based on CPWD DSoR, incorporates all aspects supported in all the major operating systems viz
of management of public works comprising of Windows, Linux and macOS. The solution can be
estimate preparation,RE, eMBook and eBills. A integrated by applications developed in Java, PHP
Contractor portal is also available as part of the
and .NET etc.
The digital signature also provides a viable
login to view their works and do all work-related solution for creating legally enforceable
activities online including contractor license electronic records. An applet based digital
registration and renewals. It is implemented in all signature solution was developed and integrated
engineering departments of Kerala and at MCD. with web applications developed using various
technologies.
Independent Digital Signature Solution) Ente Jilla
https://nicdsign.kerala.nic.in “Ente Jilla” which means “My District” is a
The NICDSign is a cross-platform, browser mobile Application designed and developed by
independent solution for digital signature NIC. The App was customized for the use of all the
using PKCS#11 tokens. The NICDSign is a client- districts of Kerala. This App was launched by the
based solution where the DSC capabilities are Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala as part of the 100
installed in the client machine as a background days programme and included in the CM’s Priority
service. The DSC Signing solution overcomes the projects. Th e concept is a very large whiteboard,
problem of applet-based DSC solutions due to which facilitates citizens to rate and review any
the lack of browser support. The solution is also office in the district based on their experience.