CIOIN

Executive summary

In 1986 the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) tried to computerize the regional passport office in New Delhi. The project failed, the chief reason being that the focus was on security of the issuance system. User workload increased, resentment rose, since the staff had expected computerization to make life easier.

Pushing computerization even in today's machine-friendly environment isn't easy, but trying to implement a new system after the old one bombed is an unenviable task. But that is exactly what Dr B.N. Shetty, senior technical director & HOD,  External Affairs Informatics Division, was asked to do. "It was crucial for NIC to implement the project successfully and they needed a strategy," recalls Dr Shetty.

In 1989, three years after the first failed attempt, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) took on the task of putting together another system. In the first phase, all major passport offices were taken up for rollout. Over time, the implementation washed over the other offices. By 1996, all major offices were computerized, and the rest were covered by 2001. Importantly, the progress of the implementation was slow initially, but sustained, because users didn't have much faith in IT. How did the NIC move into territory that had been lost to IT and was filled with unfriendly natives, and still convert all of them?

The computerization process in the passport offices, says Dr Shetty, was undertaken in three stages. "These included basic computerization, security related modules, and public facilitation," he added. Basic computerization modeled itself on the manual process and covered counter operations, data captures, internal file movements, dispatch, and undelivered cases. The security-related modules were implemented to handle checks against anti-social elements and double passport holders. For public facilitation, technologies like SMS and IVR were applied.

Initially, explains Dr Shetty, they only introduced and computerized acceptance counters. This was where basic details were entered and cash receipts were given to applicants. At this stage, all that the officials could do was tally cash apart from preparing cash and movement registers. They decided that subsequent modules for areas like security and public facilitation would be introduced one by one after continuous interaction with users made them realize that every new module was designed with their needs in mind, and that changes were being introduced to make their lives easier.

Today, if the NIC can boast of implementing an end-to end complete solution for the issuance of passports, because new IT initiatives is still being followed. Another important thing that both NIC and the MEA have done is stick with a single person to head IT initiatives.

Success begets success - and in the case of thriving IT projects, it also leads to upgrades. "The pilot project was started using 386 systems with 8 MB RAM, the Xenix OS and Oracle 5," recalls Dr Shetty. Today, the department is running Itanium servers with Linux and Oracle 9 in some offices. The OS and the capacity of the PCs are not all that have changed - while earlier applications were based on dumb terminals, the passport department has recently switched over to GUI-based Web browser applications in one of the passport offices at Mallapuram in Tamil Nadu.

While computerization has benefited the passport department immensely, the chief beneficiary, as with all successful e governance projects, is the common man.

Dr Shetty says, "As per NIC's mandate, efforts have been made to help the financially, physically and intellectually weaker section of society through the PCIS.

The NIC is not resting on its laurels. It has plans to initiate central printing of passports for Indian missions abroad. The NIC is also contemplating the introduction of e passports on a pilot basis for diplomatic and official passports and upgrades of the PISON system to connect individual passport offices on a real-time basis.