Santosh Kumar at his office in Ranchi. Picture by Hardeep Singh

State information officer of National Informatics Centre (NIC) Santosh Kumar has been handling the centre?s unit since the state was formed in November 2000. The centre is the nodal unit of the Union ministry of communications and information technology in Jharkhand and works under the direct control of the central department of information technology to promote e-governance in the state. Kumar graduated in electronics engineering from Bihar Institute of Technology, Sindri in 1975 and went on to do an M.Tech from Banaras Hindu University. He has worked with SAIL and Gujarat Ambuja and has been with the NIC since 1990. Kumar has a long experience in handling various information technology projects of the Union and state governments. His brief stints in West Germany and Singapore opened his eyes to the extent to which people-friendly information technology can be put to use.

In an interview with S. Shekhar, Kumar spoke about the accomplishments of the NIC in the state and the agency?s plans for future.

l What role can the NIC play in the development of the state?

The centre has been formed to promote e-governance across the country. Under the pragmatic leadership of director-general N. Vijayaditya, the NIC has totted up many accomplishments.

The centre uses various aspects of information technology for a region?s development. We have been handling various projects like videoconferencing, setting up of internet lease lines and preparing essential databases for the state government for the past four years. NIC has a unit in every district of the state, which promoted the use of information technology on the district level.

lWhat changes has the NIC brought about on the ground in Jharkhand since 2000?

We have established district information centres (DICs) in all the districts of the state, which are manned by district information officers (DIO). The office is being used as a video-conferencing centre, which allows officials in the district to explain their problems to higher-ups in the state secretariat. The DICs have been set up in the vicinity of all the district collectorates. Our infrastructure for video-conferencing is one of the best in the country.

We have developed the website www.jharkhand.website.in for the state government. Any person can get to know about aspects of various government departments by logging in to the website. Another website, called www.gpfjharkhand.nic.in, helps various government employees access details of their providend funds. With the help of our website www.jharkhandtelecom.nic.in a person can access any phone number listed . We have also developed a web-based facility for Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP). A student interested in studying at the CIP can apply through the internet.

lThe NIC was also roped in by the government this election. What role did the centre play in the poll process?

To begin with, we created a database of all government employees who were to be deputed on election duty. To avoid any preferential allotment, the names were chosen from the list randomly, in the presence of election commission officials.

We were also responsible for relaying the results after every round of counting. We had established a special network linking counting centres, our office and the Doordarshan office. Everything was done under strict surveillance of election observers.

lWhich state do you consider ideal as far work carried out by the NIC unit there is concerned?

Karnataka. The state has achieved a lot in the field of information technology. The presence of the top multinational companies in Bangalore has had an impact on the NIC unit there as well. The centre there has developed a special website , which keeps detailed land records. It is so exhaustive that a bank can provide loan on the basis of a printout from the website. They have also worked on added information technology features like telemedicine.

lWhat are the future plans of the NIC?s Jharkhand unit?

We are setting up two internet lease lines in the state with a data transfer capacity of 2 MBPS (million bytes per second). Accessing internet sites will take far less time. We are also going to provide special software to all the treasuries of districts, through which they can keep a detailed account of the financial transactions of various departments.

In the coming years, two software programmes we have developed ? Vahan and Sarthi ? can find a use in all the districts. While Vahan has been designed to keep detailed records of all the registered vehicles, Sarthi has been designed to keep a tab on driving licenses provided so far.

lWhat help can a common man get from the NIC?

The NIC has been formed to aid government departments and agencies. We cannot aid individuals or private companies.

lHave you faced any problems in Jharkhand?

We have had problems with manpower. Sometimes the volume of work increases and we find it very tough to handle it.

Then the data required for government websites is not readily available, making it difficult for us to keep them updated.