INTERNAL ASSIGNMENT APPLICABLE FOR JUNE 2021 EXAMINATION

COURSE: INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR MANAGERS

ANSWER 1.

INTRODUCTION
Direct selling refers to selling the products by the manufacturer without the involvement of any intermediaries
in a non-retail setting, either through dedicated websites or their own channel. It removes the middlemen
associated with the distribution of the product, such as wholesalers and regional distributors. Nowadays,
Manufacturers and firms are pioneering and leveraging from the blend of Direct Selling and E-commerce.
E-commerce can be referred to as an activity that involves buying, selling, conveying or exchanging products
and services with the help of electronic networks or computers.

CONCEPT AND APPLICATION

Covid-19, Global Pandemic revolutionized the lifestyle of the people and affected business to a great deal.
People are moving towards extensive indoor living due to fear. Also, to adhere to lockdown restrictions, people
find buying from the comfort of their home a safer option. Due to this, many traditional brick and mortar
businesses and small scale manufacturers incurred losses, reduced their operations, and a few even shut down
due to negligible or no sales. However, it was noted that e-commerce was one twinkling star that gathered
strength after strength.

Quantitative data backing the Direct Selling experience of small scale manufacturers dealing in
handicraft via Amazon during Covid-19
Amazon, an e-commerce website, empowered small scale manufacturers like artisan and helped safeguard the
local ecosystem. Artisans traditionally make their living from tourism, exhibitions and selling through local
markets as all of this was not accessible to artisans in 2020; Amazon came up with an initiative called
'Handicraft Mela' from 26th September to 10th October 2020 with an aim to generate consumer demand for
handicraft to help eight lakh artisans and weavers affiliated with 1,500 Amazon Karigar sellers and 17
government emporiums affected by the Covid-19 wave. It showcased more than 270 art and craft forms from
across the country, including over 55,000 unique products like handloom, handicrafts home décor, kitchen
items, handcrafted festive collection, handmade toys etc.
Amazon also came up with a 10-week long 'Stand for Handmade' initiative in July 2020 to restore artisan's
livelihood. It was an enormous success and approximately doubled the sulking sales of artisans in India over
just ten weeks. 'Stand for Handmade' impacted over 10,000 artisans from Chhattisgarh, 5200 weavers from
Bengal, 4500 Pochampally weavers from 56 villages of Telangana, and many more.

The reasons behind the success of small scale manufacturers dealing in handicraft
Small-scale manufacturers owe much of their success to Direct selling via E-commerce websites. Amazon has
launched a dedicated program for Artisans across India by partnering with government institution and various
other emporiums to help the local 'Karigars' earn a stable living and gain recognition for their work. These
emporiums provide market connectivity to the 'Karigars' and bridges the gap between them and Amazon.
These artisans usually sell their products in local markets, and all these efforts are made to connect them to
larger market space. This initiative is called 'Amazon Karigar'. It was observed that the 'Amazon Karigar'
initiative saw a growth of 200% in 2019. It offers the following benefits and services to the artisans to help
them grow and establish their brands:
• Subsidized Referral Fee
All sellers on amazon have to pay fee referrals. Amazon has subsidized the referral fee for the artisans
to make it more feasible for them to sell their products and encourage them to be a part of 'Amazon
Karigar'
• Personalized training
Owing to the limited knowledge of artisans about e-commerce, they are provided with personalized
training of the marketplace to make the experience of the artisans easy and smooth.
 • Account management support
It may be difficult for many artisans to manage their account. Amazons representatives help them by
handling their seller account and guide them through the whole process.
• Marketing support
Amazon comes up with various innovative ways to promote the artisans via initiatives like 'Stand for
Handmade' and 'Handicraft Mela'. It also collaborated with Vidya Balan and Amazon Prime to inform
people about the handicraft industry and their initiative to help the artisans.
• Imaging & cataloguing support
It's essential to display the product in a manner that preserves and conveys the product's beauty for the
customer to make the purchase decision. To facilitate the same, amazon assists the artisans with HD
photoshoots and cataloguing of their products
• Increased product visibility
Customers looking for handmade artifacts can directly visit the 'Amazon Karigar' store and buy the
product of their choice instead of browsing through millions of products at Amazon.

Role of technology in making the lives of small-scale manufacturers simpler

Small scale manufacturers are vulnerable as they have a lower capital reserve, assets, and lower productivity
levels. Technology has played a pivotal role in supporting them. Many small-scale manufacturers leverage the
integration of modern technological advancements into their core operations as
• It provides a better brand exposure or a larger target market
• Social media or digital platforms have made communication with customers, employees, suppliers and
marketing communication more effortless than ever.
• Many small business owners can avail the opportunity by working online and having no physical
presence at all.
• A company entirely operating online optimizes cost by saving expenses like rent, electricity etc. and
since communication and other tasks are digitized, it helps save time.

Future of Small Scale Manufacturer post-Covid-19 crisis

As per research, India's e-commerce industry will grow 84 per cent and generate revenue of approximately
$111 billion by 2024 owing to the demand created by the coronavirus pandemic's impact. Sellers are highly
benefited by technology, and this would only grow in the future. Post Covid-19 crises, manufacturers will still
prefer selling their products online. They may also sell face to face again, but it won't be at the cost of the
business they are generating via e-commerce platforms.

CONCLUSION
The systematic use of direct selling via e-commerce business has proven to be a boon, especially during the
Covid-19 pandemic. Small scale manufacturers selling handcrafted products directly to the customers via e-
commerce platforms have been largely benefited. The initiative called 'Amazon Karigars' has enabled artisans
to earn a living while showcasing their talent by selling their creations into a mass-market by leveraging
technology. The future of such small scale manufacturers is bright as the pandemic has made people dependent
on online purchasing and made their buying experience convenient and hassle-free. Therefore, The e-
commerce industry is expected to grow in the coming times, even after the pandemic is over.

ANSWER 2.
INTRODUCTION
E-governance or Electronic governance is the application of Information Technology for delivering
government service, exchanging information, facilitating communication, transactions, and integration of
several stand-alone systems between government to citizen, government-to-business and government-to-
government, and back-end processes and interactions within the entire government framework. With the
emergence of e-governance, government services are available to citizens conveniently, efficiently, and
transparently. It is a time and cost-effective way of delivering services. It eliminates the cost of physical
infrastructure, offices, building and on-site staff. The customers are also benefited by easier access, faster
processing and more accurate transaction.
CONCEPT AND APPLICATION
Services offered by e-governance are
• Government to Business (G2B)
These services help businesses to interact with the government smoothly and systematically. For
instance, the government has digitized the tax filing process in India and provides an online
interface for businesses to pay taxes. It is mandatory in many states of India. It has resulted in less
paperwork, more accuracy and accountability and reducing delays.
• Government to Government (G2G)
These are the services that are internal to government departments. These include applications that
facilitate data or information exchanges between departments, and there is a common platform
that enables the sharing of information, much like MIS used in organizations.
• Government to Citizen (G2C)
These services provide comfort to citizens in sustaining various needs. The central aim of G2C is
to provide a variety of information and communication technology (ICT) services to citizens
efficiently and economically and bridge the gap between the government and the citizens using
technology.

Antyodaya Saral Haryana

Antyodaya Saral is an initiative by the Haryana government to employ e-governance to provide
citizen-centric services to a commoner in a time-bound manner. It transfers citizen service delivery in
the state and has over 500 schemes and services in one digital platform. The vision for Antyodaya
Saral is to provide a unified platform to deliver and track Government-to-Citizen services/schemes
across Haryana. Over 115 Service delivery centres, Saral Kendra and Antyodaya Saral Kendra, deliver
services of 38 departments on a single window that anybody can access with much ease. These
departments include revenue, public health, Municipal corporation of Gurgaon (MCG), Gurgaon
police department etc. There is also a column for the COVID-19 updates. Citizens can fill online
applications, track their application status, and also receive updates on their application's progress on
their mobile phone.
The implementation of this initiative began in July 2017. It involved re-imagining the entire service
delivery framework in the state and bringing about a fundamental behavioural change in how the
government functioned. Haryana has also received a gold award for Antyodaya Saral in the 23rd
conference on e-governance in February 2020, held in Mumbai.
The key objectives of Antyodaya Saral include establishing citizen service delivery centres at all levels
like districts, subdivisions, and tehsil. It does not also aim to provide all schemes and services provided
by the government at one digital platform but also ensure that the requests or queries of the citizens
are being delivered in a transparent and timely manner.

Benefits of Antyodaya Saral

• It has helped the Government stop corruption. A commoner doesn't have to pay or bribe
government officials to get their applications accepted.
• Digitization of schemes and services has helped in achieving greater efficiency.
• The project ensures hassle-free delivery of government to citizen services.
• It facilitates transparency into the government process.
• The initiative is time effective and is focused on delivering results within stipulated time.
• It has also provided Haryana with a new identity in the field of Information technology.

Statistics and Quantitative Data backing Antyodaya Saral

Rakesh Gupta, the director of this project, shared the following numbers recorded by the state.
• Out of the 1 crore application received online in Haryana, more than 70 lac came through the
Antyodaya Saral platform.
• Over 1 lac queries relating to the schemes and services are processed through their helpline every
month, and over 15 lac citizens receive SMSs regarding their applications.
• Calls were made to the citizens who had used the platform to know if they felt they benefited from
the initiative and gauge their satisfaction level. The users averagely gave a rating of 4.3 on a scale
of 5 to all the government's departments.
 • In the past two years, the Haryana Government has catered to the needs of 88.2% of its applications
within the specified time period as notified under the Haryana Right to Service Act 2014.
• After the implementation of Antyodaya Saral, there has been a 15% increase in the applications
reception and a 16% reduction in the processing time from mid-2018 to mid-2019 and further
positive change is expected.

CONCLUSION
The Antyodaya Saral Haryana is an excellent e-governance initiative taken by the Government of Haryana on
the guidelines of the central government. It takes us one step forward towards Digital India, which is aimed
to be paperless, cashless and faceless to serve the citizens in a better, effective, accurate, transparent and timely
manner. The reduction in the processing time compared to previous years with the emergence of Antyodaya
Saral and other quantitative data clearly indicates that the project is doing well. A significant increase in the
number of applications received using the platform and user rating suggests that the citizens find this portal
user friendly and efficient.

ANSWER 3.
3A
INTRODUCTION
A smart city refers to a geographical area that has invested heavily in Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) to facilitate the area's management. The government of India defines smart cities as the
cities that provide core infrastructure and provide a decent quality of life to citizens of the country. The smart
solutions based on IT infrastructures include water management, environment management, energy
management, urban mobility development, education, healthcare and other services.
CONCEPT AND APPLICATION
I would select 'Singapore' as the benchmark to emulate some of the best Smart city practices in Leh. The
following are the initiatives that could be implemented in Leh
Transportation
• One Motoring
It is a comprehensive portal that shows the real-time traffic information collected via various
surveillance camera. It informs the driver of the travel time, roadmaps, street direction, traffic images
etc. it can be accessed on the mobile as well
• Mytransport.SG
It is a smartphone application catering to commuters. It provides real-time information about the buses
to improve commuter's travelling experience. The app determines the bus's real-time location and
provides information on bus arrival. Commuters can check the bus's colour-coded space availability
in the bus.
Healthcare
• Emergency Medical Service (EMS)
A person residing in Singapore can seek emergency medical service through the three-digit dial '995'
or by using a mobile application, which has been designed to increase the survival rate of people in
the situation such as out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. It also guides the user with the course of action to
take by the time help reaches them
Environment
• Waste bins with sensing monitors
They were introduced for the effective management of waste and are equipped with a sensor on their
lid. It collects information about the content and location of the bin. This information is notified to a
garbage team through a central server. It helps in keeping the public area clean and route planning for
garbage disposal and waste segregation.
Reasons for choosing Singapore as a model
• Tourism is amongst the major contributors to the economy of both cities.
• Singapore is considered one of the smartest cities globally and has implemented a world-class smart
city initiative.
• Singapore is much more populated than Leh. Therefore, any initiatives involving people that have
succeeded in Singapore will work even better if applied well in a less populated city like Leh.
CONCLUSION
A smart city incorporates facets like urban mobility or transportation, environmental sustainability,
healthcare, education, energy management etc. The key objective of Investment in ICT to turn a city into a
smart city is to facilitate business growth and promote its citizens' quality of life. The initiative suggested to
turn Leh into a smart city are in line with both the key objectives of smart city planning. Revenues people in
Leh are dependent on tourism, and it attracts tourism owing to its beauty and terrain. Initiatives prescribed
above could increase the flow of business, tourism and promote quality of life.

3B.
INTRODUCTION
A smart city is a combination of Infrastructure and Technology playing their designated roles. It aims to make
a region clean, efficient, and easily accessible to various services. The smart city uses ICT or Information &
Communication Technologies to create two-way communication between the citizens and government. ICT
helps the government analyze the state's demand pattern and form a pool of resources to tackle them online.
The communication taking place on an electronic medium in a community helps create a collective
intelligence that can be deployed for resource optimization with the help of analytics and deep learning.
CONCEPT AND APPLICATION
As an external IT consultant by the Government of India with a mandate to convert Leh into a 'Smart City, I
will be introducing the undermentioned. Innovative technology-enabled services in Leh.
Smart Transportation
Smart transportation focuses on using emerging technologies to move around a city in a much more
convenient, cost-effective and safe manner. Effective use of public transport is an essential stem of a smart
transportation city. The following are some facilities to be incorporated in Leh to enable smart
transportation:
• Easy online ticketing
• Smart card
• Online recharge of smart cards
• Online and real-time information of bus route, schedule, seat availability and live expected time of
arrival
• Last-mile connectivity of public transportation
• Usage of battery-operated public transportation like e-rickshaw
• A portal showing real-time traffic information collected via surveillance camera that potentially
informs the driver about blockage on a particular route due to bad traffic condition, landslide, snow
etc. and consecutively guide the user with an alternate way.
Smart Environment
The usage of the latest infrastructure clubbed with technology helps in reducing the carbon footprints for
any smart city. The following are some facilities to be incorporated in Leh
• Street lights enabled with sensor-based tech to allow auto-switching depending on the ambient
lighting conditions
• Use of solar panels to generate electricity for common facilities, offices and even street lamps
• Rainwater harvesting plants on roofs of the building
• Installation of windmill or wind turbines to turn the kinetic energy into mechanical power and
finally to electricity.
• Usage of smart grids

CONCLUSION
Smart city is not something imaginary. It is just a step away from reality. The government must collaborate
with startups, visionaries and innovators to develop effective solutions and implement them. It is more about
execution than planning which will do the job and bring about the solicited change. However, a smart city can
only be achieved in a true sense when the technology is clubbed with basic infrastructural projects to ensure
amenities available at ease.