DACNET - an E-Governance Infrastructure for the Globalization of Indian Agriculture

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1 Microsoft Windows Server System Customer Solution Case Study DACNET - an E-Governance Infrastructure for the Globalization of Indian Agriculture Attains Customer Satisfaction Index of 91.5 percent Overview Country or Region: India Industry: Government Customer Profile India's Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC), sponsored project called DACNET to usher in information technology to its directorates and their field units located throughout the country. Situation Solution National Informatics Centre, the technology division of the Indian government, built multiple solutions using Microsoft Windows Server System and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server for projects covering 52 directorates, regional directorates, and 120 field units. Benefits Paperless office Increased employee efficiency Citizen empowerment Due to DACNET software, the processing time for an applicant has been reduced from more than one year to less than three months. We are extremely pleased that the DACNET team has made this possible. Secretary,, Central Insecticides Board & Registration Committee (CIBRC),, Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine, and Storage In a move to take advantage of information technology in delivering its services, India's Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) Ministry of Agriculture authorized a project called DACNET to be implemented by the National Informatics Centre the technology division of the Indian government. DACNET facilitates Indian agriculture online. DACNET's key criteria included ease-of-use, speed of information delivery, low incidence of errors, reduction in corruption, and affordable services. The service level agreements guaranteed a high-level of support or system maintenance. Approved September 2001, the project aims to dramatically strengthen the information technology infrastructure in all Department of Agriculture and Cooperation directorates, regional directorates, and its field units. The DACNET project has reduced time taken to deliver services while making information available to its citizens over the Internet.

2 According to Dr. Mrs. C. T. Mishra, Additional Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, the DACNET project is an exemplary implementation of information technology tools in the directorates and field offices. The project is a state-of-the artimplementation of: Internet and intranet solutions to support the dissemination of information, effective information exchange, and knowledge sharing among governmental offices. E-governance model Development of various specific application software for better decision support at the directorates Systematic approach to educate the country's government officials through information technology. Situation The country of India has an agriculture-based economy. Agriculture provides livelihood to 70 percent of the population and sustains economic and industrial development. To continue in this role, agriculture in India requires a productivity and quality revolution. The Indian government believes this can be brought about through much-needed reforms including land reforms, rural infrastructure, information access, extension services, credit marketing, and pricing. Information technology and e-governance has become a vital tool for sustainable expansion and globalization of Indian economy. Information technology accelerates globalization and provides critical access to information for the Indian people. By 2008, a farmer in any remote village can access information on: Land use planning for crop strategy based on integrated information about soil, water, weather, fertilizer, and pest management models. Real-time information on good-quality seeds or nursery plants. Prevailing prices of farm equipment, agricultural produce, and products, which can lead to high productivity and reduced cost benefits. To achieve a knowledge society in the agricultural sector, the Indian state governments must provide: An agriculture information centre in each village. Interactive exchange for farmers with information for planning day-to-day operations. Extension and advisory services available on demand India's Department of Agriculture envisions that information technology will provide a network for the agriculture sector not only within the country, but also globally. The

3 Objectives of DACNET Faster and reliable information dissemination and exchange across the department and its directorates and field units. Better communication internally to the organization using and instant messaging for enhanced coordination, knowledge sharing, and research. Quantitative enhancements in the government's work culture. Telecommuting features that will provide for geography-independent work. Streamlining existing methods and practices, both administrative and technical. Easy access to the publishable information with minimal administrative intervention, with proper search features. Greater integration and use of the data from a variety of data sources. Optimal utilization of available budget and staffing resources, simultaneously moving towards the goal of the paper-less office. department also facilitates the exchange of ideas and information among the farmers, researchers, scientists, and administrators through its knowledge portal Business Situation In the overall strategy of ushering in an e- governance, the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) has initiated the project, DACNET. DAC has sanctioned the DACNET project to National Informatics Centre (NIC). NIC has successfully evolved its systems development strategy using evolutionary prototyping and iterative development that results in a formal system. This project facilitates information to multiple stakeholders about how agriculture can be developed in India. DACNET has four major components: Network together directorates, regional directorates, and field units for Internet and intranet access with the central DACNET resources. Establish a local-area network throughout Department of Agriculture field locations. Empower employees through specialized system training programs. Web-based applications at the directorate, regional directorate, and field units. Some of the projects under DACNET are as follows: Integrated Pest Management Staff members at 26 Central Integrated Pest Management Centres monitor and provide information about pest and disease build-up on crops. The centres promote biological control insect pests and weeds, by parasites, natural predators, and pathogens to minimize environmental pollution that can be caused by pesticides. The goal is to help farmers maintain the ecological balance of natural fauna through the safe use of pesticides. The centres also act as model centers and active catalysts in promoting technology. It also coordinates with the state agriculture departments. The DACNET project team has implemented an application at 26 plant quarantine stations to facilitate registration of plant importers' applications. The application helps in effective regulation of imports and exports of agricultural commodities and plants to avoid importing parasites and plant diseases along with the plants and seeds. Locust Warning & Control Locust Warning Organizations Circles have been established in five locations with headquarters at Jodhpur. Locust Warning Organizations Circles has 23 outposts and a field investigation station at Bikaner. These circles monitor locusts and take control measures in the secluded desert areas. They also maintain close liaison with the Indian government's Food and Agriculture Organisation and with locust prone countries, like Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq. Based on the survey of field offices, the data on density of locust population and situations for alarm are monitored on a weekly or monthly basis. Updates are sent to the Department of Agriculture field offices to take protective measures. Data on migration of locusts is collected in a pre-designed format and distributed every two weeks. Under the DACNET project, an application has been undertaken in collaboration with the Locust Warning Organization, to facilitate processing of pesticides sample test results for better planning and management of resources. Pesticides Quality Control Testing of pesticides is essential to recommend suitable composition for the

4 Applications under DACNET Plant Quarantine Information System Crop Weather Watch Market Prices Analysis Bio-fertilizers Informatics Online Integrated Pest Management Information System Computerized Registration of Pesticides Knowledge Management System e-granthalaya Farm Machinery Informatics Online The.Net Platform has provided us with the highest levels of reliability, scalability and functionality. Mr. M. Moni, Deputy Director General, NIC, registration of pesticides, as well as to enforce quality standards on the available pesticides for crop protection. As part of DACNET, an application has been developed for pesticide testing, in consultation with the department's scientists. Pesticides Registration The DACNET project team has already developed a workflow application for processing applications for Department of Agriculture approval that are submitted by the pesticide manufacturing companies. It is now possible to obtain immediate online access to application status. Name, Secretary, Central Insecticides Board & Registration Committee, advises, Earlier, the applicants who are located all over India had to visit our headquarters in Faridabad or make enquiries over the telephone. Due to this pesticide application management software, the processing time for a certification has been reduced from more than one year to less than three months. We are extremely pleased that the DACNET team has made this possible. Directorate of Oil Seeds Development A knowledge portal has been implemented to provide information on oil seeds, that produce oils used in food preparation. The highlights of the Web portal include: Farmer s warning issued from time to time Geographical information of oil seed crop Economic importance Varieties Distribution Climate and soil Season Pest and diseases Crop rotation Measures for high yield Prices of agricultural commodities Minimum support price Kissan (Farmer) Helpline There have also been numerous DACNET initiatives under e-governance applications in the areas for the successful production of wheat, barley, sugar cane, rice, cotton, jute, pulses, and tobacco crops. Central AGMARKNET Laboratory A Central Sector Scheme of Directorate of Marketing and Inspection portal will eventually serve as a one-stop service to facilitate market led extension for the benefit of the farming community. This portal venture benefits the farming communities with access to global market information and strengthens the internal agricultural marketing system in India. DACNET enables periodic downloading of data from the portal's central database. It enables the preparation of state-wide trend analysis and monthly bulletins by various Department of Agriculture marketing and inspection offices across the country. Weather Watch Monitoring System This system builds up a reliable information base for crop review, with respect to wheat and barley production in India. This application facilitates: Speedy collection of reliable information. Easy access to information. Easy generation of usable reports with the newly gathered data. Other Initiatives The DACNET project team has been interacting with the directorates and has been able to implement various e-governance applications for personnel management, inventory management, file monitoring, payroll, and library management.

5 Solution The DACNET project team chose Microsoft.NET connection software that facilitates the adoption of XML (Extensible Markup Language), SOAP, UDDI (Universal Discovery, Description, and Integration), and Web services among the software architect and developer communities. The goal of the National Informatics Centre was to deliver coherent and integrated solutions that offered farming best practices, shared experiences, and global solutions to India's farmers. NIC also enables the Department of Agriculture to provide agricultural information to farmers over the Internet, making it widely available on a costeffective basis. The DACNET intranet solution is based on Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 for document management. The system integrates with Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 messaging and collaboration server for messaging and work-flow applications. It uses SQL Server 2000 for database management and decision support. Each directorate is equipped with SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft Internet Security Accelerator 2000, running on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server operating system. The desktops offer Microsoft Office Visio 2000 drawing and diagramming software and Microsoft Office XP. The field units are equipped with the latest Microsoft Windows XP operating system and Office XP with local language support.

6 The Web-based application for DACNET includes remote access and work-flow applications, portal services, and decision support systems. Benefits Mr. Moni says, These systems, their secure networking, and readily accessible information reinforce our commitment to productivity. There exists a complementary relationship between sustainable development and productivity. DACNET project has facilitated creation of an e-governance framework that empowers directorates and field office employees in delivery of services. This has been achieved by providing solutions for dissemination of information, and creating applications that automate key functions. The project has helped facilitate decision making which in turn will help build capacity in crop production and food supply in the country. Paper-Less ess Office The National Informatics Centre sought to create an electronic, paper-less office environment to aid employees in delivering more services, while requiring fewer resources. The electronic office ('e-office) includes a) Directorate Portal Services for providing the general public with policy and guidelines information on each directorate b) Development of e-governance applications that automates the business process of each directorate in the areas of government functions, interaction of government and business enterprises, and government and citizens, and the like. Feedback from the current systems will influence future business process re-engineering projects. c) Development of an intranet for employees that provides them with selfhelp human resources and budgeting applications. Increased Employee Efficiency through IT Empowerment We have been able to empower employees with information technology, through specialized training programmes with help from Microsoft, says Mrs. Alka Mishra, Technical Director, DACNET. To empower employees, a comprehensive training program was developed and implemented for 4,000 employees across various directorates and field units. The employees previously had little or no prior knowledge of personal computers (PCs) and information technology. The program therefore had topics that covered basics of PCs, such as interacting with Microsoft Windows XP, Office productivity tools, and database design and analysis, decision support systems, and geographic information systems. Empowerment of Citizens The DACNET project has enabled a better delivery of government services to the citizens of India. India has empowered its people with easy access to information. This digital development in rural areas facilitates rural prosperity and the ability for rural people to help themselves, thanks to the availability of useful information. This is a positive step

7 For More Information For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: For more information about DACNET project visit the website at: For more information about National Informatics Centre products and services, please visit: towards digital inclusion to foster rural enterprise. Awards and Recognition The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India has recognized the DACNET project with a Bronze Icon award in the Innovative Operations and Best Practices New Entrants, for exemplary implementation of e- governance initiatives in the eighth (Indian) National E-Governance Conference held at Bhubaneswar. Microsoft Windows Server System Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server infrastructure software is designed to support end-to-end solutions built on the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system. It creates an infrastructure based on integrated innovation, Microsoft s holistic approach to building products and solutions that are intrinsically designed to work together and interact seamlessly with other data and applications across your IT environment. This allows you to reduce the costs of ongoing operations; deliver a more secure and reliable IT infrastructure; and drive valuable new capabilities for the future growth of your business. For more information about Windows Server System, go to: Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, SharePoint, Visio, Windows, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Document published September 2005 Software and Services Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Microsoft Windows XP Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Microsoft Visio 2000 Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2002 Microsoft Office Enterprise Edition 2003 Partner National Informatics Centre