NIC should advise govt instead of writing codes: Ram Sewak Sharma

Interview with Secretary, Department of Electronics and IT

In his first interview after taking over as Secretary of the Department of Electronics and IT, Ram Sewak Sharma speaks to Surabhi Agarwal about the need for the department to reinvent itself and re-look at projects initiated several years ago as they might not be relevant anymore, given the changing nature of technology. Edited excerpts:

What insights do you carry from your past interactions with the department as chief secretary of Jharkhand and director general of the UIDAI (Aadhaar nodal agency)?

It was a good experience to work with the state government before assuming this role. Because it is from there that you see how projects are implemented; how the interface of states with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) takes place; what are the deficiencies and pain points. That experience will help in fine-tuning, restructuring, re-designing some part of the projects under the National e-Governance Plan.

What key gaps have you identified so far?

The first phase of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched in 2006; eight years have passed since then. A lot of things have changed in software and hardware. Mobile has now become an effective delivery medium. I think we need to re-design or restructure various projects, obsolete in terms of their structure. For example, many of the programmes were developed on client server technology and now you have cloud. We have to tap cloud and deliver services through mobile, tablets, etc. One of the important points I want to make is that there are huge silos. We need to create more information interchange protocols to bridge the gap. I think data-driven decision-making or data analytics is an area that is lacking. Over the years, states have created a lot of data such as property, taxes, treasury, etc. We need to have that analysed to draw patterns or for fraud or tax evasion analytics.

Where else do you envisage a re-look?

I think NIC should become an advisor to the government rather than an application developer. In many states, you will find NIC employees are developing applications, writing codes. That has to change. NIC is a strategic partner and they should provide advice while others do application development. NIC shouldn’t be writing codes. We should also be able to develop many more platform applications. For example, Aadhaar is a platform on which you can develop applications. States can just ride on it, create a login and get going. For example, payment gateways, SMS gateways, PDS and transport applications can be easily standardised. This will lead to simpler design architecture and less duplication of works.

How do you look at the new government and its technology vision?

The new government will have its own policies or priorities. We will thus have to re-design or re-orient the policies in accordance with the priorities of the new government. I am pretty hopeful that this area, especially governance, will become a huge focus of the new government. Electronics manufacturing is also a priority area. We can provide employment to a huge number of people besides cutting down on our electronics import.

What is going to be your strategy to address issues of cyber security, internet governance as this is an emerging area where India has a lot of catch up to do?

Internet governance is one area where we would like to have an important role to play considering that we are the largest users of this infrastructure. The customer base of Internet in India is very high. Efforts are on and we have articulated our views. We are also trying to put some institutional frameworks to ensure better cyber security.