Karnataka to launch integrated m-governance platform on Oct 30

Any transaction which we can do through phone, shall be done through phone, says IT secy

After launching some pilot projects for mobile-governance (m-governance), Karnataka government is all set to launch an integrated (m-governance) platform on October 30, 2013, Srivatsa Krishna, secretary in the department of information technology (IT), biotechnology and science & technology, Karnataka today said.

“We look forward to our mobile governance project, which is going to be launched pretty soon. We have a pilot, we are the global leaders in this space, and this hopefully will be the next big thing in e-governance and mobile governance space, where any transaction which we can do through phone, shall be done through phone,” Krishna said during a session at Karnataka government’s flagship IT event, ITE.Biz.

Even as Krishna refused to share any further details on the same, he said, the mobile-governance application will be rolled out “with the largest private partner in mobile services globally”. The mobile-governance application will include Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

In January 2013, the Karnataka government had announced some pilot projects in m-governance that allowed citizens to access various government services on their mobile phones. These included information services as well as services involving actual transactions. The pilot project included services like Sakala services; utility services such as electricity, water, and BSNL landline and mobile bill payments; traffic services like bus routes and timing information, and traffic alerts service and pending traffic fine payments.

At the time of this launch, the state government had said it would look to launch an integrated mobile-enabled services delivery system through this initiative.

“It (the application which will be launched this month) will bring all the services you get from the government on mobile. It may happen slowly and not on the day one,” Krishna said.

The state government has been working towards this endeavor for the past two years and this may be a flagship initiative in m-governance as it will be a one-stop-shop for all government services, D S Ravindran, CEO, e-Goverance, department of IT, Karnataka told Business Standard on the sidelines of the event.

“What is being envisioned is a complete thing. It’s a platform service to all the government departments. There are many services which are currently listed, and they will go live. All kinds of services—transactional and informational—you name it and it will be there,” Ravindran said.