Integrated Information System for Food grains Management IISFM*

Transcription

1 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM Integrated Information ystem for Food grains Management IIFM* 1 Ranjna Nagpal, r ech Director, NIC, NC of Delhi ranjna@nic.in, ranjnan@gmail.com BRC Integrated Information ystem for Food Grains Management (IIFM) is an MI solution developed and implemented by National Informatics Centre (NIC) for Food Corporation of India (FCI). his system aims to improve the Information & Communications echnology and better online stock inventory management system. his system can be used to bring in more transparency and curb mismanagement of food stocks. his system is basically designed from the Food torage Depot point of view, since data originates from Depots. his is a webbased application. he application has been designed to operate both in networked environment through a WN or standalonemode, depending on the connectivity. he application provides the facility to create rolebased users with specific permissions. he data capture takes place at the Depots, which forms the base of the project. he data is captured at the individual tack levels. ll movements into and out of the Depot by rucks, Rail or any other mode of transport are captured as Receipts, Issues or Dispatches. he data is captured ruckwise and Wagonwise. he Issues related to different chemes are also recorded by the Module. part from the stock data, the Module also captures Quality related data of the commodities, both received and stored. he captured data flows from the Depots to the Head Quarter while being collated at various levels of hierarchy with Food Corporation of India, and thus the stock data related to every Depot is made available at a Central location. he data transmitted to the Central erver is processed for generating reports relating to the tocks at District, Regional, Zonal and National Level. he stock position at any given Depot even from the remotest part of the country could be known through the Internet. part from these reports on stock position of the Depots, a portal designed for the exclusive use of Food Corporation of India is used to disseminate information related to Movement Plan, offtake of food grains against different schemes, support to the users of the District Module and Depot Module applications and the like. NIC with the mandate of a project consultant has provided an endtoend solution. It has planned the project management strategy, has designed, developed, implemented and maintaining the requisite applications, has provided extensive training to the officials of FCI for effective induction of

2 2 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM Information echnology in FCI thus leading to capacity building of the human resources of FCI. NIC has coordinated with NICI for the supply and installation of the hardware and with Bharat anchar Nigam Limited (BNL) for implementation of VPN across the district, regional and zonal offices. 1. Introduction/Background (a) Project Conceptualization Food Corporation of India operates through a countrywide network with its corporate office in New Delhi, five zonal offices, 23 regional offices in almost all the state capitals, 166 district offices, and over 1500 depots. he manual process previously followed in conjunction with a traditional file processing solution had many lacunae such as incomplete or inaccurate information on current stock availability. his originated an idea to have a fullfledged computerized MI that gives the right information at right time about food grains stock position. he inaccuracy of the information on the stock availability at any given point of time was highlighted by Comptroller and uditor General of India, which asked Food Corporation of India to address the issue and provide an effective solution. he Project Proposal evoked a keen interest in the Prime Minister s ffice, which considered it as one of national importance, and led to the IIFM Project as a Plan cheme under the 10th Five Year Plan with a budgetary provision of crores. (b) Project Vision, takeholders, bjectives and ervices: i. Vision Upgrade the MI of the Food Corporation of India based on a computer network based tock ccounting Procedure, and to establish a uniform & integrated system for food grains management across the country. ii. takeholders Internal: 1. Food Corporation of India (FCI) 2. Ministry of Consumer ffairs & Food, Public Distribution 3. National Informatics Centre (NIC) 4. National Informatics Centre ervices Inc. (NICI)

3 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM 3 xternal: 1. Civil upplies Departments of tate Governments 2. Central Warehousing Corporation 3. tate Warehousing Corporation(s) 4. Bharat anchar Nigam Limited (BNL) 5. Procurement gencies iii. bjectives nytime & nywhere availability and shareability of accurate food grains related data to aid the Decision Makers and Planners of Food ecurity. Creation of I infrastructure including computer hardware and networking in the Food Corporation of India, which involves procurement and installation of suitable hardware at all the identified depots. Identification of functional areas in the FCI/Departments and automating the process of food grains management. Develop a computerbased solution to manage the stocks in the Food torage Depots. ransparency in the horizontal and vertical movement of the data using a secure network. Capacity Building of the Human Resources in Food Corporation of India, as well as providing onsite echnical upport. iv. ervices NIC is the overall project consultant and is providing endtoend solution in collaboration with a dedicated team of FCI entrusted with the task of providing the domain knowledge, and is striving to fulfill the objectives of the project. (c) Public Private Partnership (PPP) roles and responsibilities, audit, L, business model; If not PPP, funding process: his project is a Plan cheme (under 10th Five Year Plan) of Planning Commission, Govt. of India, which is to be internalized by Food Corporation of India in terms of maintenance and operations. (d) Necessity/Needs

4 4 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM he inaccuracy of the information on the stock availability at any given point of time was highlighted by Comptroller and uditor General of India, which asked Food Corporation of India to address the issue and provide an effective solution. lso the localization of the operational procedures at the depots had created a heterogeneous operational methods thus leading to lack of uniformity of data in the manual system. II. PRJC PLN (a) Requirements of process reengineering and legal framework, echnology rchitecture Legal Framework tripartite agreement on the project exists between FCI, NIC and NICI. he project, without modifying the procedures laid down by FCI for food stock management, has eliminated the redundancy of data by establishing links between different operational levels of data sets. echnology rchitecture FCI operations and work procedures were different from region to region with in FCI. Development of suitable software for FCI was a real challenge. It involved a complete systems study across the country, visiting various FCI offices and depots to understand the functioning of the organization. fter studying the existing system a solution was proposed that both horizontally and vertically integrates all activities of FCI and mainly concentrates on the following stock management areas of FCI: Receipt/ Issues, tock, torage/ Contract, Quality Control, ales and Movement of food grains. he system is basically designed from the depot point of view as depot is the main source of data. he Depots are equipped with computers and connectivity, so that grossroot level data can be captured. he system has different modules as follows:

5 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM D MI D Head ffice Zonal ffice Regional ffice District ffice Depot ffice R C I D P R C M V M N Q U L I Y R G C N R C G I N L Y M D M N 5 (b) Milestones pproximately 890 Field Locations have been provided with the necessary Hardware as part of the IC infrastructure improvement. he Food Corporation of India personnel have been imparted training on Computers, and nearly 400 echnical upervisors and 1700 Data ntry perators have been imparted training of different aspects of the Project. ll the Zonal, Regional & District ffices of Food Corporation of India have been connected through a VPN. he Depot Module, which captures every transaction and stackwise details of various food grains kept in the food storage depots, is in a phased Rollut stage. Data is being transmitted from Depots upwards, thus one can get the latest stock position over the web. (c) Project Management tructure he Project Management tructure consists of the following components: Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) CR group NICFCI Jointperation eam NIC Network & Hardware eam NIC pplication Development, esting & Product Implementation eam Project Portal

6 6 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) he PMC consists of senior officials from the Ministry of Consumer ffairs & Food, Public Distribution, Food Corporation of India, National Informatics Centre and National Informatics Center ervices Inc., his Committee meets once in 3 months under the Chairmanship of Chairman (FCI) to review and monitor the progress of the project with regard to the argets and chievements, and performs as a guiding and advisory body. CR Group he CR Group consists of senior officials from Food Corporation of India, National Informatics Centre and National Informatics Center ervices Inc., his CR Group monitors the progress of the various components of the project viz., networking, hardware supplies, application development, training etc., such that the argets set by the PMC are achieved. he CR Group meets once in a month under the chairmanship of xecutive Director of FCI. NICFCI Jointperation eam his small team is entrusted with the job of deciding the features of the application, testing of the application, test locations, feedbacks analysis, etc., this team meets on a daytoday interaction basis (over or phone) or ondemand basis (meetings). NIC Network & Hardware eam NIC has a dedicated team which looks after the hardware procurement, supply and installation. his team interacts with the supplier of the hardware and ensures that the requisite hardware is supplied to the selected depots and installation done. lso, this team works with BNL to ensure the smooth functioning of the VPN built across the Zonal, Regional and District offices of FCI. NIC pplication Development, esting, Product Implementation & upport eam his team develops the application; the application, after local testing is tested at the depots along with FCI team. he application is later implemented at the depots by FCI with the support of NIC.

7 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM 7 Project Portal his portal functions as the pivot of the project. he portal disseminates to all the stakeholders and the officials responsible for the implementation for the project, information on the various components of the project such as product downloads, circulars, hardware installation status, VPN support and the like. III. IMPLMNIN (a) trategy for Pilot to roll out Improvement of IC Infrastructure in FCI Phases I, II & III completed. raining of FCI personnel Phases I & II completed. However, training is an ongoing process. Depot Module is on phased Roll ut stage. he Pilot implementation was across approximately 66 install locations chosen by FCI, which is now being extended to all the depots. (b) Capacity building: Governance structure, Project management teams, xit management team, Change management and training Governance structure Please refer to (c) Project Management tructure under II. Project Plan Capacity Building he Food Corporation of India personnel have been imparted training on Computers, and nearly 400 echnical upervisors and 1700 Data ntry perators have been imparted training on different aspects of the Project. (c) valuation and Measurement he Project Monitoring Committee Meeting, which takes place once in three months, utilizes the feedbacks provided by the Regional fficers to evaluate the project and its effectiveness. Corrective measures and decisions are after deliberations during the regular meetings at Central & Regional Levels.

8 8 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM he Impact ssessment of the Project has been carried out by Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. he report titled Impact ssessment and valuation of IIFM Project of Food Corporation of India has been handed over to Govt. of India. IV. IU ND HIR LUIN (a) Lessons learnt critical success factors, failure factors Commitment; coupled with regular review and monitoring by the Internal takeholders. nduser s participation and enthusiasm Project rchitecture imely availability of funds (b) Replication in other states his project is a nationwide implementation. (c) Road ahead he scope of the project has been enlarged to cover the decentralized procuring tates, which means to capture information relating to food grains management operations done by agencies other than FCI also; therefore the project duration has been extended till March V. U ND RUL (a) Present status National Level Reports at Zonal ffice, Regional ffice and District ffice level are in operation for more than a year. hese reports are generated from the food stock data available at District ffices. pproximately 890 Field Locations have been provided with the necessary Hardware as part of the IC infrastructure improvement. he Food Corporation of India personnel have been imparted training on Computers, and nearly 400 echnical upervisors and 1700 Data ntry perators have been formed. ll the Zonal, Regional & District ffices of Food Corporation of India have been connected through a VPN.

9 Integrated Information ystem for Foodgrains Management IIFM 9 he Depot Module, which captures every transaction and stackwise details of various food grains, kept in the food storage depots have been made operational in more than 180 depots. Data is being transmitted from these depots, thus one can get the latest stock position over the web. FCI has the target to implement this module in all the depots by the end of year (b) pecific achievements during the year ll the Zonal, Regional & District ffices of Food Corporation of India have been connected through a VPN. he districtwise stock accounting data is captured at district level, and after consolidation, stock related reports are generated at Region, Zone and National level and is available through internet. 180 depots have transmitted their respective stock data and this could be viewed over the web. (c) Future plans for readers seeking more information on project dditional reports, queries and trend analysis on various combinations of parameters shall be made available over the web. Food stock storage information shall be made available through graphical and GI interface. * * *