Subject: NIC database 1991 NICNET

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT INFORMATICS

NIC has established Informatics Technology (IT) Units in the ministri= es and departments of the Government of India. A number of IT units compr= ise an Informatics Division. the division is responsible for interacting = with the users, studying their information requirements and arranging for= the necessary hardware and software for the MIS support within the minis= try/department. While the IT units interact with the end-users and ensure= the smooth operation of the equipment and application software, as well = as connectivity to NICNET; the division also catalyses projects which can= integrate information from the field offices for timely and effective de= cision making. the latter ar implemented by NIC on turnkey basis. These c= ommercial projects are executed by NIC at no profit (cost plus),providing= enormous savings to the user departments compared to what would be charg= ed by the commercial software consultants. =

INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN MAJOR SECTORS =

Some of the important Management Information Systems (MIS) implemented= in major sectors are: =

Agriculture

Agriculture Census, Agricultural Input Survey, Agriculture Commodity = Prices Movement, Agricultural Commodity Market Arrival Monitoring, Crop S= tatistics, Seed Management; Fertilizer Production, Movement, Import and C= onsumption; Irrigation Water deliveries etc. for use by State Irrigation = Departments (Pilot Project Bhadra Reservoir, Karnataka implemented); Moni= toring of Reservoir levels through NICNET; Monitoring of Jawahar Rozgar Y= ojana, Drought Prone Area Program monitoring for effective rural developm= ent, Land Records System;Management of Food Economy Procurement of Wheat = and Rice System, Storage and Stock Position of Foodgrains, Sugar Informat= ics System, Public Distribution System, Wagon movement by Grains, Price M= onitoring of Grains. =

Administration

Personnel database for Postings, Transfer, Training;Vigilance cases; = Infrastructure Monitoring: Production performance of 9 Key Sectors, namel= y Power, Coal, Steel, Railways, Shipping, Telecom, Fertilizer, Cement, Pe= troleum and Natural Cas; Industrial Disputes Pendency monitoring, Industr= ial Unrest monitoring, Emigrants Complaint Monitoring, Recruiting Agents = Monitoring; Result Processing for Hindi Examination under Official Langua= ge Teaching Scheme. =

Energy

Project Monitoring on Rural Electrification, Monitoring of major powe= r projects, Regional Electricity Board database, Target Scheduling Model;= MIS projects on Wind, Solar Energy and Chulhas in non-conventional Energ= y Sector; Gas production Monitoring, Petroleum Production monitoring; Pro= duction Monitoring for Chemicals, Petrochemeicals, Pharmaceuticals;Drug P= rice Control System; Coal Production, Wagon Loading and Coal Dispatching = System. =

Finance and Commerce

Voucher level Accounting System for the Controller General of Account= s, Computerised Budget preparation system, Postal Accounting System, Tele= com Accounting System, Central Pension Accounting System, Economic Survey= ; Central Excise Production, Clearance, Revenue System; Vigilance Monitor= ing System for CBEC, Audit Management System for CBEC, Income Tax MPR dat= abase, PAN System for CIT, Delhi;
Audit system for CBDT, System for Examination Management, Assessment = Information System, Online Income Tax Act; Vigilance System for Banking, = Banks Profits and performance monitoring system, Regional Rural Banks Man= agement database; Surveyors License Issuance in the Insurance Division, M= onitoring of Life and General Insurance companies; Importer-Exporter Prof= ile Monitoring, Advances Licensing of Export Obligation Monitoring, Expor= t Production Capital Goods Scheme Monitoring, Export Import Policy Prepar= ation, Receipt of Issuance Statistics Monitoring, Cash compensatory Schem= e Monitoring, Replenishment License Issuance Monitoring. =

Industry and Transport

Registrar of companies database, System for Monitoring Industrial App= roval and level of State Government for tracking successful MIS for Steel= Sector; National Minerals database covering all the minerals and deposit= s in all districts; Standards database of BIS on NICNET; Drug Formulation= Applications Processing & Information System for all end-user drugs;=
National Highways and Bridges database, conference package for Intern= ational Association for Bridge & Structural Engineers; Foreign Touris= t Arrivals Information, Monitoring of Projects for creating Tourist Infra= structure, Hotel Accommodation System, Travel India Information System. =

Social Sector

District Level MIS on universal Immunisation programme, Health Inform= ation System, Central Health Scheme Cadre management System, MIS for Drug= Controller, All India Post Partun program, Central Admission and Enquiry= Management System for GB Pant Hospital; Total Literacy Campaign Monitori= ng, Voationalization of School Education Monitoring, Integrated Child Dev= elopment Scheme Projects Monitoring; List of Business system in the Supre= me Court, Caveat Matching System in the Supreme Court, Case Law Retrieval= System in the Supreme Court for all reported cases, Case Library; =
Litigation Query and Court Orders Systems at the Central Administrati= ve Tribunal, Case law for CAT, India Code Project, Census Computerisation= system. =

S&T

Integrated S&T Information System for DST Policy makers on S&= T Applications, R & D Techniques and Technologies and Monitoring of P= rojects and Schemes; Database on Electronics Industry Performance, Databa= se on DNA projects for safety and Environment Risks, MIS for DBT on Monit= oring of R&D and non-R&D Projects; MIS for Deptt. of Ocean Develo= pment; =
MIS for Environment related to Chemical Accidents, River Valley Proje= cts, Forest Conservation, Air & Water Quality Monitoring, Pollutants = of Yamuna River, Flora and Fauna of Biosphere. =

Apex Organisations

Apex Organisations like Cabinet Secretariat, Prime Minister's Office,= President's Secretariat, Vice-President's Secretariat and the Parliament including the Lok Sabha and the Rajy= a Sabha have been computerised for their specific requirements. =

In order to give direction to the IT work, NIC-Ministry Co- ordinatio= n Committees (NMCCs) have been set up under the chairmanship of correspon= ding Secretaries. NMCCs meet from time to time to review the work and mak= e computerisation more effective and meaningful for better decision makin= g. =

Contracted Projects

Large projects executed by NIC, which have made qualitative change in= the working of some of the government departments are given below. Many = of these have been executed on a no profit basis. =

Budget

The union budget was fully computerised by NIC in 1986, and since the= n the software package developed on Apple Macintosh System operating unde= r the LAN environment, has been considerably improved. The entire Central= Budget is processed in such a way as to give the output directly to the = Budget Press where it is printed. =
The project covers the preparation and reconciliation of Statements o= f Expenditure Budget, Preparation of Annual Financial Statement, Budget a= t a Glance and Receipt Budget for Non-tax Revenue Receipts. =

Passport

The Regional Passport Office, Delhi under the Ministry of External Af= fairs has been computerised. From the receipt of an application, to the a= ctual issue of the passport, the entire procedure has been computerised, = and it has helped cut down the delays. The status of an application can b= e known online from any of the terminals. The project is now being extend= ed to other RPOs in the country. =

Small Scale Industries Census The second census of Small Scale Indust= rial units, conducted by DCSSI, was fully computerised using the extensiv= e reach of NICNET in a record time. Data processing was decentralised to = 14 state centres of NIC and the processed data was transmitted over NICNE= T to NIC headquarters for consolidation. All-India and State- wise analys= es was carried out on a large number of parameters for policy work in the= Ministry of Industry. =

PCA-1991 Census Abstract

Census 1991, the fifth since independence, was conducted by the Offic= e of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RGI). The Census= was conducted in two phases. During the first phase, April-September, 19= 90, the Houselist Schedule was canvassed, which contained identifying inf= ormation on each household and its usage. The Household schedule and Indi= vidual Slip were canvassed in the second Phase, February-March, 1991 popu= larly known as Census time.
As implied in its name the Individual's social, implied in its name t= he Individual slip is a statement of an Individual's social, demographic = and economic characteristics, whereas the Household Schedule is an abstra= ct of Individuals in a household. The Primary Census Abstract (PCA) is a = subset of household schedule data consolidated at the village level for r= ural areas and ward level for urban areas. The PCA is the sex-wise data, = for 6.27 lakh villages and 4,615 towns with their outgrowth, which can be= upward aggregated to give Blocks, Tehsil, District and State totals. =

The NIC State Unit Uttar Pradesh (NICUPSU) was the first to take up t= he computerisation of PCA data of Uttar Pradesh, the state with the maxim= um number of villages. Within 15 months of the Census, NICUPSU completed = the computerisation. The validation checks used in computerisation helped= a great deal to improve the accuracy of data, which was not possible in = a manual system. Considering the efficiency and accurate results produced= , =
computerisation in other states was taken up in July 1992 and PCA dat= a was released on NICNET in a short time of 6 months on 14th January, 199= 3. NIC State units, in close co-operation with the Director, Census Opera= tions, worked day and night, for the release of this data on NICNET. Avai= lability of PCA data on NICNET permits access of data to any authorized u= ser, on the district/state computers of NIC and terminals installed in th= e government bhavans in Delhi. This has opened up a new chapter in the op= enness of =
information. Dissemination of this data on floppies, apart from the u= sual publications has been possible for the first time in the Census oper= ations. =

Central Excise

The Central Excise Computerisation Project was entrusted to NIC on a = turnkey basis by the Central Board of Excise and Customs, Department of R= evenue. It involved the design, development and implementation of the app= lication software package called System for Excise Revenue and Monitoring=
(SERMON), in the 31 central excise collectorates and their 250 divisi= ons; procurement of hardware and installation of the same in all the fiel= d offices throughout the Country; conducting training programmes on SERMO= N in all the collectorates; and advising them on connecting the systems t= o NICNET. The entire project was completed as per the schedule of CBEC. =

Patent Information Services

World wide Patent Information System is being provided by nic with pa= tent data from the International Patent Documentation Centre (INPADOC). N= IC keeps up-to-date patent information, and, provide services which inclu= de bibliographic information services and full text specification service= s.
For example, some of the information available include bibliographic = database with the coverage from 1986 onwards for ST Countries and from 19= 69 onwards for USA. Also abstract and full text is available for patents = of European, USA, Great Britain, France, Germany and Canada. =

Biomedical Information Services

NIC has vast resources of biomedical information comprising both bibl= iographic and full text, which is relevant to all in the field of researc= h and biotechnology. This is based on the Medical Literature Analysis and= Retrieval Systems (MEDLARS), created by the National Library of Medicine= , National Institute of Health, USA. =
MEDLARS is the most extensively used medical information system which= uses published and unpublished literature in all areas of medicine inclu= ding General Medicine, Nursing, Health Planning and Administration, AIDS = etc.
All these databases are directly searchable through NICNET or dial up= modems. The CD-ROM databases at NIC headquarters comprise MEDLINE data f= rom 1986 onwards, which include articles from over 3,500 journals from 70= countries, in the field of General Medicine. =

Teletext Application System

NIC has closely interacted with several information providers for tel= etext service using the Intext studios located in the Doordarshan Kendra.= These include the Indian Airlines,Air India, Press Trust of India, North= ern Railway, and over the Counter Exchange of India. Their computers are = directly connected to computers at the teletext studios. =
The airlines arrivals and departures information is directly updated = by their computers and displayed through Teletext. Likewise, the railways= information on train arrivals, departures, status of availability throug= h their computer systems are also broadcast through teletext. Intext also= allows the display of Stock Market closing prices, OTCEI share prices, f= oreign exchange rates, bullion and silver rates etc. =

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Systems have been installed by the N= orthern Railway at their booking offices in New Delhi, Old Delhi and Luck= now with the assistance of NIC. Teletext services are provided by NIC's s= oftware package. =

Networks: Closed User Groups over NICNET

Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), National Thermal Power Corporat= ion (NTPC) and Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO) are among th= e first user organisations to have their Closed User Groups (CUG) over NI= CNET. SAIL has installed 18 VSATs, to connect their plants to headquarter= s. NTPC has installed 6 VSATs to link all their stations while IFFCO has = connected 3 stations in its CUG. =

Bibliographic Information Services =

NIC provides bibliographic information services, including full text = search of over 360 key research journals, and 1,80,000 articles every yea= r. The document delivery system, called ADONIS, available on CD-ROMs, pri= marily covers bio-medical disciplines. ADONIS produces the pages as they = appear in the journal, including halftones and graphics. The searching so= ftware allows very fast retrieval, with facilities of browsing, display, = printing etc. =

State Bank of Travancore =

State bank of Travancore (SBT) is the first commercial bank which is = using NICNET for its data communication requirements. SBT has set up a CU= G over NICNET for its Head Office, Regional Offices and a number of comme= rcially important branches throughout India. =
The applications for which SBT is using NICNET include message data t= ransfer among its offices, NRI remittances, transfer of RBI balances amon= gst its offices, Funds and Investment management, and exchange of SWIFT m= essages between Foreign Exchange Departments. =

Court-NIC =

The project Court-NIC was conceived with the successful implementatio= n of an information system to aid the Registry of the Supreme Court of In= dia in decision making. The computerisation at the Supreme Court includes= the Case Law Retrieval System, accessible by judges from their terminals= with nearly 2,00,000 cases the Caveat Matching System and the List of Bu= siness System.
As part of the project, standard information systems have also been d= eveloped for the High Courts, and have already implemented at Delhi, Bomb= ay, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Allahabad as well as at CAT. All these syst= ems have improved the functioning of the Supreme Court and High Courts in= a significant way. =

The Courts are being connected through NICNET on an all-India basis p= rimarily from the viewpoint of providing online information service to li= tigants and advocates. The databases from across the courts will be avail= able =
for querying to show the status of a particular case. This service wi= ll be provided form the NIC computer centres located at all the District = Headquarters and the State Capitals. The litigants and advocates can acce= ss the status of any case in the Supreme Court from their respective citi= es through NICNET. =

A large database with free text retrieval capabilities on the INDIA C= ODE has been developed which contains all the legislations enacted by the= Parliament and its predecessor bodies covering the period of 1836-1992. = The Acts are searchable on any free word through a fast retrieval algorit= hm. This will be made available to the Ministry of Law, Courts and other = organisations. =

Computer Aided Paperless Examination System (CAPES)

There is a necessity of introducing more innovative methods for condu= cting examinations with desired efficiency to cope up with the increasing= number of candidates appearing for various examinations. Observance of c= onfidentiality and security aspects is a challenging task. Computer Aided= Paperless Examination System (CAPES) is an attempt to appropriately comp= lement and supplement the present process of conducting examinations. =

CAPES will help the examining bodies in conducting the examinations i= n widely scattered locations. This new approach is based on the latest in= novations in information technology like personal computers, communicatio= n networks,
optical disk technology like Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) d= evices, etc. CAPES ensures a scientific and rational method for conductin= g the examinations in addition to providing the requisite confidentiality= and security features. CAPES helps in avoiding the usage of papers and p= rinting which is a very involved process in the conventional system. =

NIC with all the necessary infrastructure like the satellite- based c= omputer-communication network, NICNET, the CD-ROM production facilities a= nd availability of computer centres in each state/districts, has made pos= sible cost effective implementation of CAPES. =

CAPES provides the following features:

Creation of comprehensive set of question banks prepared on various s= ubjects by specialists. Storage of question banks on non-erasable and hig= hly secured media like CD-ROM. Retrieval of sets of through stratified ra= ndom selection from the question banks. Making the questions available to= the examinee for answering through computer terminal;
Automatic generation of scores through instant evaluation. Transmissi= on of examinee's performance data through NICNET to the apex examining bo= dy for consolidation. Malpractices like paper leakage and copying do not = exist because of large size of question banks. =
CAPES is targeted for Examining Bodies such as UPSC, Banking Services= Recruitment Board and University Entrance Examinations. It provides comp= rehensive MIS support, creation and maintenance of question banks for con= tinuous usage, and instant exchange of data and information through NICNE= T. =
CAPES provides extensive flexibility to the examinee in selecting the= time and venue, has user-friendly computer screens and interfaces which = ensure easy answering, and does not require any prior knowledge of comput= ers. =
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