5.

Utilities
This is a type of systems software that supports the computer infrastructure.
Utilities help the operating system perform tasks, such as data security, to keep
the computer running effectively. Many utilities are third-party tools, such as
antivirus and file compression software that users install separately to help keep
a computer functioning optimally.

(b) Application Software

Application Software is a program that does real work for the user. It is mostly
created to perform a specific task for a user.

Types of Application Software

Here, are some important types of Application Software

Word-processing software:- It makes use of a computer for creating,

modifying, viewing, storing, retrieving, and printing documents.

Spreadsheet software:- Spreadsheet software is a numeric data-analysis tool

that allows you to create a computerized ledger.

Database software:- A database software is a collection of related data that

is stored and retrieved according to user demand.

Graphics software:- It allows computer systems for creating, editing, drawings,

graphs, etc.

Education software:- Education software allows a computer to be used as a

learning and teaching tool.

Entertainment software:- This type of app allows a computer to be used as an

entertainment tool.

Project Tulip

» It is an online office Automation system for Regional Controllers.

» PCDA (WC) Chandigarh has switched over from Project SUGAM (earlier office
Automation system) to project TULIP w.e.f. 1st September, 2016.

» The project covers all the activities from diarisation of dak, till payment of
bills through e-payment mode.
» The project covers all the sections of Regional Controller office viz. Record
Section, Accounts Section , Audit Sections- Miscellaneous section/Stores
Section, Civilian Pay Section, Civilian Transport Section, Medical Section,
Disbursement Section.

» All the payments through project Tulip are done through e-payment mode
i.e. through SBI CMP Portal.

THIRD PARTY PAYMENTS:

(i) Tulip Office Automation system an end to end automation (except
E Section) was implemented wef 01-04-2016 in Regional Controllers
and R & D Controllers Offices. This was pilot tested in CDA
Secunderabad from 1st April 2015 and in CDA (R&D) Bangalore from
1st August 2015. Rest other controllers are using different Office
Automation (OA) Systems. Customization of Tulip for other Controllers
will be done after due consultation with them to bring uniformity in
OA system in the department.
(ii) Tulip has been designed in such a way that it can accept digitally
signed data from units and thereby submission of ‘Hard Copy” by the
Contractors can be done away with. As the Tulip has facility to
receive bills data in soft format from units the data entry can be
avoided by importing the soft data directly in to the Tulip
and Digital Signatures can be used for authenticity of the soft data.
However, Switchover to on-line billing will need to be pursued with
Services HQrs and other stakeholders.
(iii) Tulip has encrypted sensitive fields like pass words and bank account
numbers. There are filters available to identify the type of bill, code
head to be booked, etc. Further data relating to vendor(s) like name
and address of the vendor, Bank account number, Bank branch
details, recovery and disallowance details, amount claimed &
passed, etc. are also available in the System.
(iv) Tulip can be linked to the New Compilation System (NCS) System so
that expenditure data can be imported on the latter in a seamless
manner and without manual intervention. These two system can be
linked to Financial Information Systems of the Services in a manner
that effective information interchange can take place.

Project Dolphin

Project Dolphin covers the pay and allowances of Personnel Below Officer
Ranks (PBORs) including JCOs holding Honorary commissioned Ranks.

Pay and allowances of Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR) of the Indian Army
including JCOs holding Honorary Commissioned Ranks are maintained
Corps/Regiment-wise on Individual Running Ledger Account (IRLA) System in
Pay and Accounts Offices (PAOs) of Defence Accounts Department spread
across the country.
The existing procedure of the maintenance of the Pay Accounts of PBOR on
IRLA System started way back in 1946 taking into account unique service
conditions of the Army Personnel.

Traditionally, the individual accounts (IRLAs) were maintained manually and

closed once in a quarter after giving effect to the various changes in
entitlements, advances drawn, loans/ recoveries and contributions to
provident fund, group insurance etc. After such closing, the Quarterly
Statement of Account for every Army Personnel was prepared to indicate his
entitlements and other credits, drawls/recoveries and the closing balance.
These statements were sent to the Unit of the concerned personnel to apprise
him of the status of his account.

In order to improve the quality, efficiency and accuracy of accounts, the pay
accounting work in PAOs was computerized in 1980s using COBOL/Unix
platform. The processing of inputs was done in batch processing mode and
cleaned inputs of the quarter were used for closing and generation of
Statements of Accounts.

Despite the major improvements made in the pay accounting system of Army
personnel, there were limitations. The processing was in batches and the final
acceptance or rejection of the inputs became known only at the time of
quarterly closing of accounts and the corrective action could be taken only in
the following quarter. The disbursements made to Army personnel were
booked to the relevant expenditure heads of Government accounts only after
quarterly closing of accounts. Till the closing of accounts, such disbursements
continued to remain outstanding under suspense heads.

In the quarterly closing of pay accounts of Army Personnel, the position of non-
adjustment or incorrect adjustment of credits/debits could be known at the
end of quarter only.

The desire to correct this position was also a motivating factor. Projects namely
“Dolphin” have been developed as briefed below:

Implementation of Project “Dolphin”

Project ‘Dolphin’ is an effort to shift the existing COBOL based system to more
current RDBMS based on-line system. The project has been developed using
open source software i.e. Java/PostgreSQL and runs on Linux environment. It
has been developed on JBoss application server with Postgres-sql database
on a three tier platform. The project has been implemented in all PAO including
PAO (ORs) GREF and is being maintained at the office of the ITSDC (Information
Technology and Software Development Centre), Secunderabad by an in-
house team.
This project is under implementation stage in PAOs. PAOs are now able to
credit pay and allowances of PBORs on monthly basis. Like PAO (ASC)
Bangalore display the statements of accounts of PBORs (both monthly and
quarterly) on their respective websites. PBORs and units have login facility to
see their statements of accounts, lodge grievance online and view reply
online. PAO (ASC) South, Bangalore has already launched its website and
started displaying the monthly and quarterly statement of accounts on
website. The other PAOs will be gradually shifted from quarterly to monthly
payment to PBORs. PAOs will also launch their websites for login based display
of accounts of PBORs on their websites.

The Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) based on Dolphin database,

implemented by PCDA (CC) in PAO, AMC has brought about greater
satisfaction amongst PBORs, who are now getting their claims related
information through an IVRS telephonic call. While other PAOs should consider
implementing the system, steps should also be taken for integrating data
messaging (SMS) facility with the application

Army officers’ pay module at PCDA (O) will be suitably augmented,

strengthened and secured to cater for implementing web based utilities
related to information interchange as well as receipt of advances related
claims. PCDA (O) may also suitably implement IVRS.

Date of implementation of the initiative: The development of the project has

been successfully completed in July, 2010.

Salient features of Dolphin are:

 Dolphin is an online system and hence delivers immediate feedback. As
soon as a DO II is fed into the system, the calculation is done by the system
immediately unlike earlier COBOL based system where the result was
known at the time of quarterly closing. Therefore the rejections can be
intimated to the units immediately for rectification.

 Validation checks incorporated in the system ensures that only accurate

data is being fed into the system.

 In the COBOL based system, the data was accessible only to the EDP staff
making it difficult for the PAO staff to settle any grievance/complaint on
real time basis. ‘Dolphin ‘has made data available to all the staff of PAO
thereby greatly reducing the complaint redressal time.

 Dolphin has facility to import soft copy of DO II data generated by Record

Office/Unit resulting in elimination of data entry work.

 The project facilitates to provide monthly entitlement information to the

soldiers. This helps them to lodge complaint/grievance if any with the PAO
 unlike the earlier system where the soldier gets the statement of account
only after quarterly closing.

 The system establishes the authority and accountability. The task functions
have been defined. The system keeps track of all the actions performed by
the task holder/supervisory staff, also recording date & time of the same.

Defence Travel System (E-Ticketing)

» Defence Travel System has been established by Defence Accounts

Department.

» The system provides for cashless booking for duty related journeys for the
service Personnel as well as DAD officials.

» The system covers the Rail Travel System and Air Travel Module.

» In the next phase (s), the development of online TA module is planned for on-
line submission of adjustment claims for individuals.

Introduction:-
The E-ticketing system has been developed to facilitate the Armed forces
Personnel to book tickets through Defence Travel Portal. The first phase of the
project is implementation of E-ticketing platform for Rail Travel in lieu of Railway
warrants for Armed forces Personnel. The second phase of the project is to
extending the system to Air Travel for Armed Forces Personnel. Defence Travel
System is a cashless system for booking of tickets in respect of Defence
personnel and their dependents for the government bonafide duties only.

For booking of tickets RDS Account (Rolling Deposit Scheme) has been opened
with IRCTC and amount due to Indian Railway at the time of booking is paid
from this account.

Users:-
(i) Units:- from Army/Air Force/Navy are the users of this system. Log-in-
Ids in the form of PKI tokens (CO Token and Master Booker Token)
have been issued to units for booking/cancellation of tickets.

(ii) Pay Accounts Office:- PAOs/AFCAO/NPAO is also the users of this

system and log-in-ids in the form of PKI-tokens have been issued.
PAOs/AFCAO/NPAO can’t book/cancel tickets using their tokens.
Their role in the system is different.
 (iii) Role of Pay Accounts Office:- PAOs download the data of respective
units using log-in-ids (PKI-token) issued to them and after requisite
steps they run the data in the monthly/quarterly pay system and
debit/credit due to the Defence Personnel takes place in their IRLAs.

Features:-
(i] The tickets can be booked through DTS as per TR only. TRs are already
incorporated in the system.

(ii) Initially, when Defence personnel/dependents from respective units books

a ticket from this system the full fare amount deducted from RDS account.
After that DTS calculate automatically the share of amount which has to pay
by individual/traveller or the share of amount which has to be borne by
Government.

(iii) Accordingly, PAOs/AFCAO/NPAO download data of respective units using

their log-in-ids(PKI-tokens) and after doing their requisite steps, run the data in
the monthly/quarterly pay system and debit(in case of booking)/credit (in
case of cancellation) of individual's share takes place into IRLA.

(iv) All the steps mentioned above are executed online.

Local Audit Offices:-

(i) At present manual audit of warrants is carried out by the LAOs for the tickets
booked/cancelled by the Defence Personnel through manual warrant which
are being controlled and issued at unit level to Defence personnel for the
bonafide government duties. Manual warrants are accounted and audited by
the respective LAOs.

(ii) Now LAOs can conduct audit online for booking/cancellation made by
Defence Personnel through Defence travel system from their respective
units/other units (exceptional cases) using the log-in-ids (PKI tokens) from
‘REPORT' tab available in the MB/CO tokens.

General audit point to be checked by the LAOs (Audit Drills):-

(i) Data of individual/dependants created in the system are as per service
records.

(ii) Proper sanction/authorization/move sanction from the competent authority

has been taken for booking/cancellation of a ticket.

(iii) Tickets are booked as per rules regarding entitlement of class.

(iv) Duty station/NRS Duty station/NA, Home Town/NRS Hometown/NA,

SPR/NRS SPR/NA has been feed in the system are as per records of Service
Book.
(v) The officer approve the request of booking/cancellation is personally
responsible to ensure that the move in question is authorized under rules.
The extra expenditure caused to the state by the unauthorized issue of
tickets is liable to be recovered from the officer who issued the tickets.

(vi) In no circumstance may ticket be issued for the personal journey which is
not covered under TR on ground of refund the amount involved in booking.
(vii) To avoid duplicacy in case of issue of manual warrant in the unit for any
unavoidable reason due to which e-ticketing system was not working at that
time, LAOs should check that data of the same warrant issued manually is
updated in the system (Offline Booking) or not. This data should be updated
in system after completion of journey.

(viii) The nature of duty for which the journey was undertaken is as per move
sanction.

(ix) Number of total tickets booked in a year for Form 'D' and all types of LTC.

(x) In case of cancellation of tickets on personal/official ground, whether

sanction of the same has been obtained from competent authority or not.

(xi) In case of temporary duty move if journey has not been performed whether
tickets have been cancelled in appropriate time or not.

(xii) All other relevant points which are same as applicable in manual warrant
should be checked in the system.

(xiii) Any other important points for which are concerned for the LAOs are
required to be checked/verified through the system.

Any violation of rules/entitlements/authorizations which comes in the notice

during audit of the system should be brought in the notice of this office and
concerned CDA office without any delay.

Air Travel:-
1. Under the e-Ticketing system- wherein Rail Tickets are being booked in lieu
of warrants, an Air travel module has also been launched in
collaboration with Balmer Lawrie to cover all types of moves like Temporary
Duty, Permanent Transfer, LTC All India and LTC Home Town. Air tickets are
being booked through DTS since 11 September 2015 by various units across
Services under different PAOs. The payment procedure as agreed between
CGDA and Balmer & Lawrie is post payment.

2. All PCsDA/CsDA/PCA(Fys) along with this HQrs office has been issued two
set of tokens/login-id for this purpose.
(a) One set of Token /Login-Id for DAD Employee: - For booking of Air
Tickets i.e. Master Booker Tokens and Competent Authority Approval
Tokens for booking of Air Tickets for entitled DAD officers (already issued
during training in the Jan, 2016).
 (b) PAO tokens for generating and downloading of system generated
booking details /Bills and invoices of air tickets booked for DAD entitled
officers for payment. Such Tokens (Issued recently) cannot be used for
booking of Air Tickets.

3. Process of Booking of Air Tickets: As mentioned in para 2(a) above, one

set of Token/Login Id has already been issued for DAD Employee for profile
creation of all officer/staffs entitled to travel by Air and booking of Air Tickets.
Air Tickets. Initially, profiles of all the officers/staffs working under
jurisdiction of each PCsDA/CsDA and PCA(Fys) need to be created for
booking of Air Tickets. The creation of profile is a onetime process and
need not be done again. When an officer/staffs will be transferred from
one PCsDA/CsDA to another, in such case his profile need to be
"Transferred out" by the old office and accordingly his new office will
perform the activity of "Transfer in" of such officers/staffs. All such activities like
profile creation, editing of profile, Air Travel Booking request and cancellation
request are performed by master booker/Booker token. At the same time,
Approval/Approving token is used for approval of all such request as
forwarded by the master booker token through DTS system. Accordingly, once
travel request is approved by Competent Authority/Approving Authority,
Master Booker/Booker Token can book the Air Ticket as per Travel Regulation
and Movement Sanction.

4. Process of Payment of Air Tickets to Balmer Lawrie & Co.: - As mentioned

above, the booking of Air Tickets has been launched in collaboration with
Balmer Lawrie, the payment procedure as agreed between CGDA and
Balmer & Lawrie is post payment. Following steps are involved in processing of
payment of Air Tickets to Balmer Lawrie & Co.

(a) Online Accounting and Payment Module for Air Travel: - As mentioned
in para 2(b) above, Air Ticket booking details and voucher for
Air Ticket booked during a particular period can be generated by
logging in to the PAO Module for further processing of payment to
Balmer & Lawrie Co.
(b) Preparation of Punching Medium: - After generation of the voucher by
logging-in to the PAO Module, PCsDA/CsDA will prepare Punching
Medium to compile under respective code head as per classification
hand book.
(c) Payment Through NEFT: - After preparation of Punching Medium
and Daily Payment Sheet, PCsDA/CsDA will make payment of the due
amount through NEFT or through any other process is being followed in
their offices.
(d) Voucher Settlement: - After payment, PCsDA/CsDA will log-in to the
PAO Module and will mark against each invoices as payment done.
 (e) Voucher Acknowledgement: - All payment will be acknowledged by
Balmer & Lawrie through System and PCsDA /CsDA will be able to
download Receipt voucher of payment from the system.

5. Claim Submission: - As the Air Ticket booked through system is given to

the officer is as good as advance to the officer/staff serving in the
PCsDA/CsDA offices, traveler will submit his final claim within one month after
completion of the journey along with original boarding pass and a copy of the
Air Ticket booked through DTS.

5. PCsDA/CsDA who are not having PKI tokens (One set of Booking Token with
two tokens (One for Master Booker/Booker Token and another for Approval
Token)) for booking of Air Tickets through DTS and one PKI token (PAO Token)
for generation of voucher and processing payment are requested to intimate
to this HQrs office for issuing of the same.

Project Nidhi

» The project covers the maintenance of funds accounts (GPF) for DAD as well
as Non DAD personnel.

» It is a centralized project implemented on MPLS WAN/ VPN over Broadband.

» Project Nidhi has made the maintenance of accounts more secure and
instant availability to all the subscribers.

» System automatically compares the data inflow vis-à-vis sectional

compilation.

» Data Entry of GPF schedules is carried out at DDP controllers/ Sub offices and
transmitted onward to CDA (Funds) Meerut duly validated and reviewed for
preparation of Annual GPF statement.

Project Bhawan

» The system deals with the work of AAO BSO offices.

» It caters for maintaining the masters of Permanent/ Temporary Defence

buildings, Occupation and Vacation Reports, generation of Rent & Allied Bills
for officers, ORs, Third Parties etc.

» Rent bills are directly uploaded on the portal of Pr. CDA (O) Pune for officers
by the respective AAO BSO offices avoiding the delay in their adjustments in
Pay Bills accordingly.

SPRSH System for Pension Administration (Raksha)

Ministry of Defence has directed that all defence civilian organizations should
be rolled out on the web based comprehensive pension package system for
Defence Civilian i.e SPARSH [System for Pension Administration (Raksha)] latest
by 01.08.2021

SPARSH Portal
The SPARSH portal is established with the objective of empowering a Defence
Pensioner with regard to his pension account. This is a step towards
disintermediation of services. This portal ensures that the pensioner is in control
of his pension account right from the time he applies to avail his pension. A
person who’s pension is due is on boarded on the portal at the time of
processing of his pension claim. The Pensioner is allotted a unique account
number once his digitised audited pension claim is ready for forwarding to
PCDA (Pensions) for issue of Pension Payment Order. The Pensioner is informed
of this account number on the mobile number/email address furnished by him
at the time of furnishing his pension claim which he can use to on-board on this
portal. Once the Service Record Holder and the corresponding Pay Accounts
Office prepares the pension claim it is made available to the pensioner on the
portal for verification. This process is called Pensioner Data Verification (PDV).
PDV ensures that the pensioner has the final say with respect to the information
furnished to the Pension Sanction Authority. The Portal also enables the
pensioner to furnish the requisite declarations/ nominations/requests for
commutation. The portal also provides the option to the pensioner to use
enabled services for quicker processing of his requests and signing of
declarations making his experience a truly paperless and hassle free one.

The SPARSH Portal provides the following facilities to the Pensioner

 Identification and furnishing of Life certificate through Manual
Certificate based process or Aadhaar Based Digital process.
 Management of Pensioner’s Profile
 Disbursement related services
 Service Requests
 Interactive Grievance Management

The Portal features a simple and user friendly interface which can be used by
the pensioner. A mobile application has also been envisaged to access the
services. The pensioner will be notified of events through his registered
mobile/email address.

SIFA System
The SIFA system is introduced for maintaining Register of Financial Proposals in
IFA. The existing SIFA System has been upgraded to “SIFA Plus System” by IT & S
wing of the HQrs office w.e.f. 01/04/2019 and has a provision to upload all
circulars/instruction orders issued by IFA wing and PIFAs/IFAs can
view/download these orders directly from SIFA Plus system. Monthly Progress
Report (MPR) & Quarterly Activity Report (QAR) also integrated to this System.
i. Software (SIFA) for online maintenance “Register of Financial Proposals”
has been created by IT Wing of HQrs office on a centralized architecture on
the WAN. Online maintenance “Register of Financial Proposals” on SIFA
software has been implemented in three stages:

1st Stage- PIFAs/Service HQrs/Command IFAs- 01-04-2016

2nd Stage- Below the Command IFAs -01-09-2016
3rd Stage- Nominated Offices -01-04-2017

ii. There are 49 fields available and each activity of the procurement is
atomized to cover the desired data in the system. The system is designed in
such a way to accommodate all the activities relating to AON/Qty Vetting,
PNC/CNC, and Financial Concurrence stages. The proposal received for
concurrence is to manually entered capturing the data like name of the
unit/formation, date of receipt, brief particulars of the proposal, Quantity,
amount proposed for AON, etc.

iii. Similarly mode of tender, date of vetting of RFP, Date of AON concurrence,
Date of floating of RFP, bench mark price, amount quoted by L-1 , economy
of savings due to PNC/CNC. The data relating to amount proposed versus
concurred, Minor Head/code head, UO No and date and date of vetting of
Supply order/sanction, Name of the firm, etc. are captured during the
expenditure angle sanction stage by the IFA(s).

iv. The system of online maintenance “Register of Financial Proposals” is

embedded to the other system of Monthly Progress Report” so that data
captured in the earlier system is taken by the second system to generate MPR
through the system itself without manual intervention.

v. It is opined that the columns provided for capturing the data could be
examined in consultation with the selected PIFAs/IFAs so that these data can
be linked with the data available in OA systems and used for intelligent audit
and payments.

vi. Further, the Services are having their own systems like IMMOLS, ILMS, CICP,
etc. These systems also provisions for e-Concurrence by I FA on their respective
platform. Where ever e-Concurrence is done on Services system data in
desirable format can be imported to server hosting the Big Data for DAD.

NEW COMPILATION SYSTEM

FIS (Budgeting & Accounting):
i. In DAD, erstwhile the tool of FIS was maintained basically on Sectional
Compilation, Book Compilation available in PCsDA/CsDA, and these
compilations are based on the raw data punched to the system through
Punching medium (PM). The sectional compilation will indicate the inputs like
Class of P.M, CDA No, Section code No, Unit code No, Month, receipt or
charge, amount, code head, etc. Based on the above data Book compilation
is generated through the system which will be consolidated and will show code
head, receipt or charge, status of expenditure both current and progressive.
Similarly All India Compilation (consolidated) and All India Analysis
(PCsDA/CsDA wise) are generated through the system at HQrs office. The
drawback of the system is that the booking of expenditure was not real time.
ii. To mitigate the time gap, New Compilation System (NCS) was introduced in
our Department in 2014 where in which the real time data is now available on
online. The erstwhile systems of All India Compilations are also available in the
System. The New Compilation System consists of 26 fields. Once the monthly
compilation is completed the notification to this effect will be available online
in the system. Where ever services requested for down loading the raw data
available on Punching medium, such defence units have been allowed to
download the data from NCS through DAD WAN by using their ID/Pass word
no allotted by IT&S wing of HQrs office.

iii. Naval HQrs are using data obtained from NCS in their FIS. In the case of
Naval HQrs the extra inputs like FIS Document No, FIS unit No is additionally
provided in the basic raw data available in the Punching Medium. For this
Naval HQrs instructed their units in the field to indicate the FIS unit Number
when they are submitting bills for audit and payment of CDAs of Navy. The FIS
Document Number is generated automatically by the system when the
contractor’s bills/invoices are produced for payment and this will function as a
deterrent for a duplicate payment. Naval HQrs have been authorized to down
load these data on line from the system by providing a special window facility
to DGNP, who is maintaining the FIS.

iv. Presently after the approval of budget estimates by the Parliament, the
Ministry of Defence (Finance) in the form of Defence Services Estimates (DSE)
circulates the Minor Head wise allocation. Apart from the same the detailed
allocation is also provided by the Service HQrs. However, the budget
allocation is done major/minor head wise, whereas the expenditure is booked
detailed code head wise and different paying controllers operate the detailed
code head. Thus, there is a need to revisit the existing new compilation system
either to upgrade the system by mapping the detailed code heads with the
respective major/minor head or to request the budget allocating authority to
feed the detailed code head/controller wise allocation so that expenditure
over the allotment may be done on a real time basis. v. All the Budget
allocators/holders will be instructed in future to feed the system and all the Pay
& Audit office also will use the same system for booking of expenditure. Using
the data along with the expenditure data provided through the compilation
system, the mining/pooling of data will be made to regroup the desired fields
to monitor the progress of expenditure or to make a meaningful FIS reports
required for our clientele. This data can also be linked with data generated by
IT systems of other verticals and can be used for relational analysis to generate
valuable inputs for all stake holders.