e-GovWorld 2006 Update 22nd September 2006

Minutes of First Meeting of Program Advisory Board of e-GovWorld 2006 held at 7th floor, NIC Block A on September 04, 2006 (5.00 pm – 8.00 pm)

The first meeting of Program Advisory Board of “e-GovWorld 2006 – South Asia e-Government Summit ” was held to appraise the members of PAB of the progress of work and the agenda for the three day conference to be held from October 26th to 28th , 2006 at New Delhi. In addition to the members of the Program Advisory Board, the representatives from the key IT and telecom industries IBM, Intel, Microsoft, CISCO, Oracle, TCS, Reliance and Novell participated in the meeting. The summary of the deliberations is provided below for the review and acceptance of the members :

The meeting was started by the Chair Mr. R.Chandrashekhar with the comments that e-GovWorld was an initiative to create an informal multistakeholder forum to work for accelerating the e-Government deployment in the region by enabling an institutional framework for e-Government cooperation in the South Asian region. He commented that the government agencies, Industry as well as the consulting organizations in India are willing to share their learning practices with other countries in the region and help them chart out their National e-Governance strategies. The amount of time invested in creation of the national e-Governance Plan of India ( NeGP) and the research/consultations carried out during the process has provided GOI with the wealth of knowledge that could be shared with other countries in the region and beyond who would like to benefit from our experience; he commented. He then invited all the participants to provide their inputs on the draft agenda for the first conference e-GovWorld 2006 under the initiative.

The convener of the conference Mr. Vikas Kanungo presented the objectives of the conference along with the milestones. The efforts carried out jointly by the organizers The Society for promotion of e-Governance, UNDP-APDIP, Tetra Information Services, Danish technological Institute and Commonwealth Center of e-Governance in true spirit of collaboration were explained to the members. The agenda of the conference was then presented to the members of the meeting for their inputs and discussion.

The agenda for the ASIA OSPA forum was also discussed and the importance of Open solutions for the e-Government strategies was communicated to the members. It was commented by the Chair as well as the other members that Open solutions do require a detailed discussions for creating awareness.

The inputs received from members are summarized below:

1. Mr. Shashank Ojha from The e-Government Practice, Information Solutions Group of The World Bank suggested that the first day of the conference should have a focus on the policy/strategy related issues and round table discussion on cooperation initiatives . The next two days could focus on technological as well as strategy aspects. It was suggested that the keynote session should be “Formulating national / state level e-Government policies/Strategies”. It was suggested by him that the policy makers from various countries should be invited to speak on the developments in their countries during the session. The suggestion was accepted for incorporation in the revised agenda

2. It was commented by Dr. Vijayditya, Dr. Moni from NIC that the discussion on standards was very much a part of the policy/ strategy discussion rather than the technology discussion. The session on the e-Government Standards will focus on the strategy for creating regional standards and the work done by various subgroups of the Standards Committee will be presented during the session. The suggestion was accepted by majority of the members present from the industry as well as the government. It was also suggested by Mr. Moni that the subgroups under the standards committee should be expanded to have a regional participation with each country in the region heading one subgroup on standards and communicate with each through formal mechanisms of regular interaction and exchange. He also suggested that a regional consultation meeting in each country may be planned.

3. Mr. Wajahat Habibullah , Honorable Chief Information Commissioner, Government of India suggested that the case study presentation is fruitful only if sufficient time for the presentation as well as the interaction is provided. The suggestion was also backed by the chair. It was therefore decided to have two tracks on case study presentation with at least 30 minutes provided to each speaker for presentation and interaction with the delegates. The suggestion was accepted by all the members for incorporation in the revised agenda. Ms Valsa Williams from Intel pointed out that Case studies provide a good learning experience and adequate time needed to be given to them.

4. Mr Sandeep Bangia from Oracle opined that handling Security in the context of increasing terrorism threat as well as the cybercime was an important issues for e-Government and a session should be planned on the issue. The suggestion was also backed by Mr. Ashwani from Reliance Communications suggesting that there were solutions available on the mobile platforms ( Mobile phones, PDAs and other devices ) which could be used to collect the real-time data from the field and upload onto the central server from where it can be shared by different agencies. Mr Ashish Gautam from IBM pointed out that Cyber security was also important aspect.

5. It was commented by Mr. Neel Rattan from PwC that though the suggestion was welcome, discussing the security related issues in a single session will not be enough and the issue merits a separate dedicated consultation. However, the any case studies from any part of the world on the implementation of ICT security strategies/ deployments may be accommodated in the case study presentation session.

6. Mr. Prakash Kumar, Joint secretary, Department of Ocean Sciences suggested that the case studies on successful service delivery models should be presented during the conference. If found feasible, the demonstration opportunity to such models should be provided during the conference. He also stressed on the need for creating model for sharing of learning practices and nation wide / regional replication of successful projects to avoid cost sin reinventing the same models. The idea was backed by Mr. Neel Rattan of PwC. The suggestion was accepted by all the members. The chair instructed to find the feasibility of having a “solution demonstration center” and backed by Mr Ashish Gautam of IBM made available to industry and government organizations during the conference. It was decided that the expo facility will not be available for displaying products but the solution demonstration center will be made available if found financially and logistically viable.

7. Mr. R. Srinivasan from TCS wanted to know whether e-GovWorld 2006 was a one time conference . It was informed by the chair that the initiative was an ongoing effort to start an informal, free and flexible regional cooperation framework where Indian industry can also play an important role in the region. e-GovWorld 2006 – South Asia e-Government Summit is the starting point for the initiative, he commented.

Various members during the discussion suggested that the session on Pro poor e-Governance strategies can be reworded as “Socially inclusive e-Governance Strategies.” It was also commented by the Mr. Shashank Ojha of The World bank that most of the citizens see e-Government deployment as pro rich initiatives , hence we may have to emphasize on the pro poor e-Governance. The suggestion with comments from the members will be passed onto UNDP-APDIP who are organizing the session.

8. Mr. Satish Kaushal from IBM informed that excellent work was done by researchers on various e-Government related issues and the forum should also provide a platform to them for presenting their papers. It was informed by the organizers that the mechanism was already in place and a call for papers had been issued against which papers were received. The selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings.

9. Dr. Vijyaditya from NIC suggested that the number of speakers should be less for each session so that each speaker can put his point across comfortable without any time constraints. The chair added that at least 30 minutes for discussion with the audience should be made available in each session. The directions will be incorporated in the revised agenda.

Th e inclusion of the session on m-Government and the presentation and demonstration of case studies on innovative m-Government services was welcomed by all the members.

The meeting was concluded with the decision that the next meeting of PAB be held in 1st week of October.
Annexure 1: List of Participants
Annexure 2: Conference Agenda






Details of the members and Observers who attended the first PAB






Updated Conference Agenda


October 26th
October 27th
October 28th
9.30 am 11.45 am

Inaugural Session

MDGs & Pro Poor eGovernance Strategies (UNDP – APDIP)

Asia OSPA Forum
Inaugration / Keynote Session (9.30 – 10.30 am)

Interoperability & Open Standards for
e-Government Services (10.30 – 11.45 am)
Innovative e-Government strategies in m-Government

11.25 am 12.15 pm
Tea Break
12.15 pm 1.45 pm

Keynote Session :
“Formulating national / state level e-Government policies/Strategies”

Sharing of Learning Practices – Global Experiences

Public Procurement Strategies in Open Standards

Roundtable on Institutional mechanisms for interstate & intrastate cooperation on
e-Government services & common applications(DIT)
1.45 pm 3.00 pm
Lunch Break
3.00 pm
4.30 pm

Standards & Enterprise Architecture Framework for
e-Government Applications

Infrastructure for delivering
e-Government services to the last mile (Telecentre models & issues, CSC, SWAN, SDC Projects of GOI)
Roundtable on Capacity Building & Awareness Strategies in Open Standards
(3.00 – 4.00pm)
Case study and research paper presentation
(Global and Asia specific)
4.30 pm
6.00 pm

Roundtable on Institutional Mechanisms for International Cooperation on
e-Governance
Securing the e-Gov infrastructure

Case Studies – Global & Asia Pacific in Open Standards(4.00– 5.30pm)

Open Solutions for Learning & Education (5.30 – 6.30pm)
Concluding session
(Recommendation from various sessions and the way forward)