In Kerala, public services an SMS away
By Sudarshan Kumar   |    5 Comments
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In Kerala, public services an SMS away
Bangalore: It may look something new or unbelievable, but, it is the truth that fishermen in Kerala, who used to travel more than 25 KMs everyday to nearby market to know the running price of fish, now, get to know the exact price by sending just an SMS to a special number with the postal code of the locality they want information on. Not only fishermen, even other sections of people are also equally benefitted by this new initiative taken by Kerala Government. Speaking at MAIT (Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology) Summit in Bangalore, Dr. Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala said, "M-Governance initiative is based on the premise that mobile phones can be used to provide a range of Government-related services and information to the public." Firstly, the Government had launched Dr SMS in Kozhikode, and it got huge response from the people. Dr SMS enables people to use their mobile phones to get information on healthcare facilities such as hospitals, pharmaceutical stores and so on. The reason of government to show keen interest in governance through mobile is not tough to guess, as the explosive growth of wireless subscribers - 1.2 million new users added daily in emerging economies around the globe, is changing society. Users are captivated by the freedom, security, and enhanced productivity that mobile phones make possible. The total impact of mobile telephony is driven primarily by its level of penetration in a given nation, that is the number of wireless subscribers as a percentage of total population. It is estimated that increasing penetration by 10 percent in India would produce tremendous end-user value of at least $10 billion, equivalent to an incremental 0.38 - 0.61 percent contribution to GDP. The mobile revolution will soon outpace the Internet revolution. The new paradigm shift will be marked by mobile, "Always- on" citizens, government, as well as the transient on-line communities. Not only M-Governance, the Government of Kerala has always been a role model for all other states when it comes to the utilization of ICT technologies to reach out to its citizens and the business community. In order to take the full advantage of the mobile and wireless ICT technology as well as dealing with the fluidity of the interaction with the mobile society and a booming mobile usage rates, the Kerala Government has initiated action to set up about 20 m-Government Services offered by eight departments identified for pilot level implementation and to deliver services though mobile phones accessible to the citizens in the field, in the street, at home or other convenient locations on a 24 X 7 basis, rather than the users having to visit government offices or log on to the internet portals to access services. Strengthening the importance of e-Governance and M-Governance, Dr. Anurag Kashyap, Vice President - Consulting Services, Asia Pacific and Middle East, Wipro said, "e-Governance is a key to transformation and Indian Government and IT industry need to take the initiative to speed up e-Governance across the country." It seems that road ahead for M-Governace and e-Governance is not easy, but it is an opportunity for all the states to increase the reach of Government services. The Kerala State Information Technology Mission is working on several projects to deliver various services to the public using mobile phones. The IT Mission's objective is to make it possible for people of Kerala to access different kinds of information, and eventually even equip them to effect payments of bills, using their mobile phones.

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