Nomination Form CATEGORY -Government to Government (G2G) Initiative of the Year

(1) Name of Project/Initiative (2) Details of Implementing Agency Name : Chandan Sen Address : National Informatics Centre, Collectorate, Bundi Rajasthan India City : Jaipur State : Rajasthan Country : INDIA PIN/ZIP : 323001 Name of Head of Institute And/ Or Name of Head of Initiative : Mrs. Indu Gupta Telephone (with country code) : 91-07472445543 Mobile No. (with country code) : Website : http://rajassembly.nic.in/ Email : chandan.sen@nic.in Alternate Email : senchandan@gmail.com

Online Answering Information System for Assembly Questions (OASIS) Details of the Nominator (Optional) Name : Chandan Sen Address : National Informatics Centre, Collectorate, Bundi Rajasthan India City : Jaipur State : Rajasthan Country : INDIA PIN/ZIP : 323001 Mrs. Indu Gupta , State Informatics Officer Telephone (with country code) : 91-7472445543 Mobile No. (with country code) : Website : http://rajassembly.nic.in/ Email : chandan.sen@nic.in Alternate Email : senchandan@gmail.com

(3) Please Answer the following questions: (a) About the programme/project/initiative: (Maximum 500 words ) The Project called OASIS (Online Answering Information System) has been initiated for Rajasthan Legislative Assembly and all the departments of Rajasthan Government to facilitate faster & secure communication pertaining to Assembly Questions. This is an eco-friendly solution as it results in savings of more than 10 million paper sheets every year. It is first such application ever deployed by any legislative assembly. All answers received through the system are also accessible through the web portal of Legislative Assembly immediately after the Question Hour. The detailed replies can instantly be viewed by media or any citizen. In the Legislative Assembly, Questions are raised by various members of the Assembly related to various issues requiring attention of the government. Questions are raised during sessions and non session period. These questions are classified in various categories such as Starred, Unstarred , Short Notice etc. The Assembly Secretariat sends the questions manually on paper

through personal messenger to the Head of every department. It is the responsibility of the concerned government department to prepare reply for the Assembly Question and submit the same to the Assembly Secretariat in specified time limit. During an year 6000-8000 questions are raised by the honble members of the Assembly. Out of these, 30-40% questions are listed for being tabled in the house for discussion/ debates. It is mandatory for the concerned department to send the reply before the date of listing of the question in the Assembly. However replies for remaining 60-70% questions are sent by the departments, at a later date. 120 Copies of the reply are sub mitted to the Assembly Secretariat for every question by the department concerned. This consumes huge volumes of paper stationary. It is estimated that almost 8 million 10 million paper sheets are required in the entire process, every year. All Assembly Questions have a very high legislative sanctity. However in a manual system it is difficult for the Assembly secretariat and to the concerned departments to keep track of the questions which have not been answered. Issues of concern for general public may remain unanswered for several months and some time years. For timely reply, it is important for every department that the notices of the questions are received well in time, so as to prepare reply in stipulated time frame. However there are situations when receipt of the question by the department concerned gets delayed for various reasons, leaving very little time for the department to react. The project has been deployed to benefit the Assembly Secretariat, Honble members of the Assembly, all government departments, Media, Scholars & Researchers & Common Citizen. Parts of the system are deployed in a highly secure environment using Digital signature based authentication for communication between the government from anywhere in the state and the Legislative Assembly. However the system also facilitates broadcast of information public domain as per the legislative processes.

(b) Date from which the project became operational : (c) Is the project still operational? (d) How is the programme/project innovative?

03-02-2010 Yes

Ensuring timely replies to the questions raised by Honble members in a legislative assembly has always been a challenge for the Assembly Secretariat as well as for all the government departments. The entire process of sending Assembly questions to the government departments and receiving the answers back at the Assembly Secretariat is such that there is extreme amount of pressure at all levels. Lot of efforts are deployed in ensuring that Questions are received by the concerned department in time so that sufficient margin is available to prepare the reply. Generally a time span of only 8-10 days is available with the concerned department to capture all facts and details from the field offices and to prepare a reply that can be submitted to the Assembly Secretariat. For Questions which are listed in the house, delay of even a single day can not be afforded. Thus every single day is critical from the day when question notice is sent to the department by the Assembly Secretariat till the receipt of reply. There are instances when a question may be wrongly sent to a department to which it does not pertain. In such a situation there is loss of critical time for the department to which the question notice would finally be shifted. This department is left with very little time for preparation of the reply. What is also important is the fact that every reply is prepared in 120 copies. This consumes lot of paper stationery and requires lot of efforts in preparation of such large number of copies. On the part of Assembly Secretariat, it is a gigantic task to manage 120 copies for each of the 8000 questions. At times the volumes are almost unmanageable. Roughly 10 million paper sheets are consumed in sending replies to Assembly Questions. This essentially has an impact on the eco-

system as production of such large number of paper sheets takes the toll of many trees. OASIS, which is a web based system, addresses all these challenges. As soon as a question is admitted in the Assembly secretariat, it is made available to the concerned department through the portal of Legislative Assembly. Information related to Assembly Questions and their answers is very sensitive and should not be made public until it is tabled in the house. As per legislative processes, during dissemination of Question notices and receipt of replies confidentiality is of utmost importance. OASIS is a highly secure application which uses Digital signatures based authentication to ensure confidentiality of information for communication between government departments and the Assembly Secretariat.

(e) What are the achievements of the programme/project? 1. The system is integrated with the processes of Assembly Questions of RLA on a real time basis. This results in immediate dissemination of information of Assembly questions to the government and thus allows more time to the government for preparation of answers. 2. It Eliminates efforts for sending notices on the part of Assembly and eliminates delays in receiving the notices on the part of the government. 3. An inherent process facilitates online monitoring of pending questions by every department. 4. The system provides ability to all the departments to retrieve and view the replies filed in the past beginning from the date of implementation of the system. 5. The system is expected to result in huge savings of stationary. It is expected that about 10 Million paper sheets would be saved every year as a result of implementation of the system. 6. Honble Members, citizens, media, research scholars etc. can get desired information online regarding questions. 7. This is a secured application, protected by user authentication through digital signatures. 8. User interface is in the Local Language HINDI.

(f) Elaborate on the challenges faced while implementing programme/project/ initiative and how was it overcome? (Maximum 500 words) Implementation of any new process in a legislative assembly is a major challenge. Previous instances of implementation or adoption of processes is necessary looked into at any of the legislative assembly or the parliament. However OASIS being the first application of its kind for any legislative assembly, The Rajasthan Assembly had to take decision to initiate such a process as first time ever. In house test runs were conducted. Product presentations were made to the Honble Speaker of the Assembly and senior officials of the state government who found the product to be very useful and hence a decision to implement the same was taken. Familiarity with digital signature based applications in the Rajasthan Government was very less. As such have users were made to obtain digital signatures. Necessary training was provided for all concerned. High availability of the system was also essential. The system required integration of all the in house processes of Questions Branch of Assembly with the processes adopted in the OASIS. Since the entire process is very sensitive, it was a major task to build confidence in the concerned officials of Rajasthan Assembly Secretariat as well as the State Government officials. Online technical support was extended to all the departments for implementation of the system.

(g) How can the programme serve as a model that can be replicated or adapted by others? (Maximum 500 words) The process of Assembly Questions and Answers is more or less the same for all Legislative Assemblies across the country as well as for the Parliament. As such with very little customization the product can be replicated for all other State Legislative Assemblies.

(h) Elaborate on the scalability of the programme/project/initiative. (Maximum 500 words) OASIS is a web based product and is available to the users on 24 x 7 basis. Users from different government departments are first registered online through the OASIS registration module along with their digital signatures. These users are subsequently authorized through the system for using OASIS. Practically, there is no limitation or restriction on number of users who can access the system. New departments and new users can be added at any time.