Review of Achievements and Initiatives of Department of Information Technology Draft National Policies on Electronics-2011

Draft National Policy on Electronics – 2011

The Draft National Policy on Electronics, 2011 (NPE 2011) was released on 3.10.2011. The draft Policy envisions creating a globally competitive Electronics Systems and Design Manufacturing (ESDM) industry including nano-electronics to meet the country's needs and serve the international market. One of the important objectives of the Policy is to achieve a turnover of about USD 400 Billion by 2020 involving investment of about USD 100 Billion and employment to around 28 million by 2020. This includes achieving a turnover of USD 55 Billion of chip design and embedded software industry and USD 80 Billion of exports in the sector. Another important objective of the Policy is to significantly upscale high-end human resource creation to 2500 PhDs annually by 2020. The Policy also proposes setting up of over 200 Electronic Manufacturing clusters in the country.

Draft National Policy on Information Technology, 2011

Draft National Policy on Information Technology, 2011 (NPIT 2011) wasreleased on 7.10.2011. The Policy aims to maximally leverage the power of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to help address economic and developmental challenges of the country. The focus of the IT policy is on deployment of ICT in all sectors of the economy and on providing IT solutions to the world. The Policy focuses on application of technology-enabled approaches to overcome developmental challenges in education, health, skill development, financial inclusion, employment generation, governance etc., to greatly enhance efficiency across the board in the economy. The Policy seeks to achieve the twin goals of bringing the full power of ICT within the reach of the whole of India and harnessing the capability and human resources of the whole of India to enable India to emerge as the Global Hub and Destination for IT-ITeS Services by 2020. It is rooted in the conviction that ICT has the power to transform India and improve the lives of all Indians.

E-Governance

Mission Mode Projects (MMP)- 4 New MMPs (Education, Health, PDS and Posts) have been added under NeGP taking the total number of MMPs under NeGP to Thirty One (31). Posts has been added as a Central MMP while the remaining three (3) MMPs (Education, Health and PDS) have been added as State MMPs.

A major initiative of the Government for ushering in e-Governance on national scale, called National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was approved on 16^thMay 2006. NeGP consists of Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and program support components which aim at creating the right governance and institutional mechanisms, core infrastructure, policies & standards and the necessary legal framework for adoption of e-Governance in the country. It is implemented at the Central, State and Local Government levels. Significant achievements in this area are as under:

Electronic Delivery of Services (EDS) Bill provisioning mandatory delivery of all public services in e-mode in next five years has been approved by the Union Cabinet on 20.12.2011 and introduced in Lok Sabha on 27.12.2011.

Common Service Centres - As on 30^th November, 2011, a total of 97,439 Common Service Centres (CSCs) have been rolled out in thirty three States and UTs. 100% CSCs have been rolled out in 13 States. A proposal to set up additional 1.5 lakh Bharat Nirman Common Service Centres so as to have one CSC in each Panchayat in whole of rural India has been prepared.

State Wide Area Networks - The State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) are already operational in 29 States.

State Data Centres - The State Data Centres have been made operational in 16 States.

e-District - e-District Pilot project has gone live in 12 States. Scheme for National Rollout of e-District MMP has been approved. Guidelines for National Rollout of e-District MMP has been finalized.

Capacity Building (CB) - Under the CB Scheme, State e-Mission Teams (SeMTs) have been setup in 32 States and UTs. Over 1000 Government officials have been trained under Specialized Training for e-Governance Programme (STeP). The first Chief Information Officer (CIO) training for officers of Central and State & UT officials has started on 7th November, 2011.

Standards – To ensure sharing of information and seamless interoperability of data and e-Governance applications, Policy on Open Standards, Biometric standards, Metadata and Data Standards, Localization and Language Technology standards, Network and Information Security, Digital Signature, Quality Assurance, Website Design Guidelines have been notified by DIT.

Mobile Governance - A Draft Policy on Mobile Governance has been formulated.

Awareness and Communication - 11 Workshops have been held across the country. The 14^th National Conference was held in February 2011.

Citizen Engagement and Social Media Framework - For wider and deeper participation and engagement with all stakeholders especially public at large, a Citizen Engagement Framework for e-Governance Projects has been developed.

Electronics Hardware Manufacturing (EHM)

The Government has attached high priority to electronics hardware manufacturing. It is keen to develop an ecosystem, which will make India a global destination for electronics system design and manufacturing. The significant achievements during the course of the year are as follows:

Setting up of Semiconductor Wafer Fabs: An Empowered Committee (EC) for identifying technology and investors for setting up Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication (Fab) Manufacturing facilities in the country was constituted. The EC after interacting with the potential investors will crystallize the nature and quantum of Government support in physical/financial terms and recommend to the Government the course of action to attract investments in the sector.

Roadmap for promoting growth of semiconductor design and services industry: India Semiconductor Association (ISA) has carried out a “Study on semiconductor design, embedded software and services industry” with the support of Department of Information Technology (DIT). The report covers Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) design, Embedded software design and Hardware/board design. A roadmap has been prepared to enable semiconductor design and services industry to move up the value chain and maintain growth rate of revenue of over 17% p.a.

Roadmap for promoting growth of electronic components industry:Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) has carried out a Study entitled “ELCOMOS - Electronic Components, Hardware Market and Manufacturing Output Study including related Assemblies and Value Chain in India” with DIT’s support. A roadmap has been prepared for promoting growth of electronic components industry.

Communications and Brand Building Campaign for promotion of ESDM sector in India: The Campaign has been launched with the objective to build “Made in India” as leading global brand in ESDM and increasing awareness regarding initiatives taken by Government to promote investments in ESDM sector.

Mandatory compliance of safety standards for electronic items: A draft Order in respect of safety standards for 16 selected electronic items has been prepared and consultations are underway with the Department of Consumer Affairs and Bureau of Indian Standards to notify mandatory compliance.

National Informatics Centre (NIC)

National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the premier S&T organization under the aegis of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT. It is the principal e-Governance solution provider. During last one year, it has implemented several e-Governance applications and services in addition to strengthening the computing and data communication infrastructure in the country. Notable achievements of the year are:

Augmentation of NICNET: During last one year, NIC has established three National Data Centres in the country to support large e-Governance applications. NIC is also facilitating the hosting of more than 7000 websites/portals of various Government Departments.

e-Procurement: GePNIC is developed as a generic e-Procurement System by which manual tendering activity is carried out in a secure environment. GePNIC has been implemented in 13 State and UTs 35,146 tenders worth over Rs 45,218.10 Crores, have been processed successfully during current financial year till 30th Nov 2011. Department of Commerce has decided adoption of NIC’s e-Procurement System in Government departments of 23 states as a part of MMP on e-Procurement.

e-Court: It is a project of great importance aimed at creating ICT infrastructure for various levels of judiciary from Supreme Courts to sub-district courts, resulting in improved level of disposal of cases at various levels. The ICT infrastructure has been set up in more than 450 court complexes during the current financial year.

e-Counseling for admissions to professional courses: e-Counseling System of NIC has helped crores of students in the admission process for various professional and technical courses of more than 20 State Boards of Technical Education resulting in considerable saving of time and money on the part of admission aspirants as well as the State boards.

e-Office: e-Office enables working in the Government leading to greater transparency and efficiency. This application has been implemented in more than dozen Central Government departments and some of the State Govt. Secretariat ushering into an electronic age of management of Government files.

MGNREGASoft: This application is a centrally hosted service being used by the Department of Rural Development, Government of India and various State Governments in the management of the whole work flow of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act right from registration to finalization of wages of workers of one of the largest social sector schemes in the world.

National Knowledge Network (NKN)

The Government’s decision to set up National Knowledge Network was announced in the Budget Speech of Union Budget for 2008-09. In March 2010 the Government approved the establishment of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) over a period of 10 years. The objective of the National Knowledge Network is to interconnect institutions of higher learning with a high speed data communication network. Network will consist of an ultra-high speed Core (multiples of 10Gbps and upwards), and over 1500 nodes. It is scalable to higher speed and more nodes also. The Core shall be complemented with a distribution layer at appropriate speeds. The participating institutions can directly or through distribution layer connect to the NKN at speeds of 100 Mbps /1 Gbps. The application areas envisaged under the NKN cover: Agriculture, Education, Health, e-governance, Grid Computing (High Performance Computing). As on 30^th November, 2011, a total of 450 Institutions are connected to NKN, and 43 virtual classrooms have been setup.

Nanotechnology

Department of Information Technology (DIT) started Nanotechnology Development Programme during the 10^th Plan with the objective to create infrastructure for research in nanoelectronics and nanometrology at the national level and also to fund small and medium level research projects in specific areas such as nanomaterials, nanodevices, Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT), nanosystems etc. Two major nanoelectronics centres have been set up in the country. These centres have become Centres of Excellence in Nanoelectronics (CEN) and are being recognized nationally and internationally and attracting young talent. The facilities of these centres are being made available to all other users in the country as well as abroad through Indian Nanoelectronics Users Programme (INUP) funded by DIT. More than 110 R&D projects from more than 100 external organizations across the country have been taken up so far under INUP. About 1150 manpower from more than 350 organizations across India have been trained through INUP.

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Source : PIB dtd 28/12/2011

F.A.Q. CHILD CARE LEAVE

Q   Who are entitled for Child Care Leave?

A    Child Care Leave can be granted to women employees having minor children below the age of 18 years, for a maximum period of 2 years (i.e. 730 days) during their entire service, for taking care of up to two children whether for rearing or to look after any of their needs like examination, sickness etc. Child Care Leave shall not be admissible if the child is eighteen years of age or older.

Q   Am I eligible to draw Salary for the period for which Child Care leave is availed?

A    During the period of such leave, the women employees shall be paid leave salary equal to the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave.

Q     Whether CCL can be debited against any other type of Leave admissible to the employee?

A      Child Care Leave shall not be debited against the leave account. Child Care Leave may also be allowed for the third year as leave not due (without production of medical certificate).

Q   Whether Child Care Leave can be combined with any other leave?

A      It may be combined with leave of the kind due and admissible.

Q   Whether Child Care Leave is applicable for third child?

A       No. CCL is not applicable to third Child.

Q     How to maintain Child Care Leave account?

A      The leave account for child care leave shall be maintained in the proforma prescribed by Govt, and it shall be kept along with the Service Book of the Government servant concerned.

Q     Whether CCL can be claimed as a matter of right?

A      The intention of the Pay Commission in recommending Child Care Leave for women employees was to facilitate women employees to take care of their children at the time of need. However, this does not mean that CCL should disrupt the functioning of Central Government offices. The nature of this leave was envisaged to be the same as that of earned leave.

Q   Whether we can prefix or suffix Saturdays, Sundays, and Gazetted holidays?

A      As in the case of Earned Leave, we can prefix or suffix Saturdays, Sundays, and Gazetted holidays with the Child Care Leave.

Q   Should we have any Earned Leave in Credit for the purpose of taking Child Care Leave?

A    There was a condition envisaged in the Office Memorandum relevant to Child Care Leave to the effect that CCL can be availed only if the employee concerned has no Earned Leave at her credit. However, this condition was withdrawn by the Government and as such there is no need for having EL in credit to avail CCL.

Q     Whether CCL can be availed without prior sanction?

A Under no circumstances can any employee proceed on CCL without prior approval of the Leave sanctioning authority.

Q     Can we avail CCL for the children who are not dependents?

A       The Child Care Leave would be permitted only if the child is dependent on the Government servant.

Q     Is there any other conditions apart from the total number of holidays and the age of the child?

A    The Conditions regarding spell of CCL, imposed upon by the Government are that it may not be granted in more than 3 spells in a calendar year and that CCL may not be granted for less than 15 days.

Further, CCL should not ordinarily be granted during the probation period except in case of certain extreme situations where the leave sanctioning authority is fully satisfied about the need of Child Care Leave to the probationer. It may also be ensured that the period for which this leave is sanctioned during probation is minimal.

Q     Whether Earned Leave availed for any purpose can be converted into Child Care Leave? How should applications where the purpose of availing leave has been indicated as 'Urgent Work' but the applicant claims to have utilized the leave for taking care of the needs of the child, be treated?

A      Child Care Leave is sanctioned to women employees having minor children, for rearing or for looking after their needs like examination, sickness etc. Hence Earned Leave availed specifically for this purpose only should be converted.

Q   Whether all Earned Leave availed irrespective of 'number of days i.e. less than 15 days, and number of spells can be converted? In cases where the CCL spills over to the next year: for example 30 days CCL from 27th December, whether the Leave should be treated as one spell or two spells'?

A    No. As the instructions contained in the OM dared 7.9.2010 has been given retrospective effect, all the conditions specified in the OM would have to be fulfilled for conversion of the Earned Leave into Child Care Leave. In cases where the leave spills over to the next year, it may be treated as one spell against the year in which the leave commences.

Q     Whether those who have availed Child Care Leave for more than 3 spells with less than 15 days can avail further Child C31.e Leave for the remaining period of the current year'?

A      No. As per the OM of even number dated 7.9.2010, Child Care Leave may not be granted in more than 3 spells. Hence CCL may not be allowed more than 3 times irrespective of the number of days or times Child Care Leave has been availed earlier.

Q Whether LTC can be availed during Child Care Leave?

A    LTC cannot be availed during Child Care Leave as Child Care Leave is granted for the specific purpose of taking care of a minor child for rearing or for looking after any other needs of the child during examination, sickness etc.

Q   Whether Child Care Leave is applicable to All India Services?

A    Yes. Child Care Leave is applicable to employees under All India Services.

          With regard to the documents for family pension, including certificate of income, required to be submitted by a claimant member of family (other than spouse) along with application form (Form 14), PPO and death certificate after the death of a pensioner/family pensioner, the Department of Pension & Pensioners Welfare has clarified that the claims submitted by a claimant member of family (other than spouse) for family pension after the death of a pensioner/family pensioner, in Form 14 and supported by the death certificate and PPO of the pensioner/family pensioner, may be processed in consultation with the Pay and Accounts Officer, who is the custodian of the pension file which contains all relevant Forms and information of the pensioner. In a very rare case where the name of the claimant member is not available in the records of the Head of Office as well as the Pay & Accounts Officer concerned and the claimant member also fails to submit a copy of PPO or Form 3 containing 'Details of Family submitted earlier by the deceased employee/pensioner, the certificates prescribed at serial number 9(v) of Form 14 may be accepted. In addition to these certificates, PAN Card, Matriculation Certificate, Passport. CGHS Card, Driving License Voter's ID card and Aadhar Number may also be accepted. Acceptance of voter's ID card and Aadhar Number is subject to the condition that the pensioner/family pensioner certifies that he/she is not a matriculate and he/she does not have any of the documents mentioned in Form 14 or above Apart from these documents, the Ministries/Departments may accept any other document submitted by the claimant, which may be relied upon and which establishes the relationship of the claimant with the pensioner and/or contains his/her date of birth.

          The applicant has also to prove that no other surviving member in the family, who may have a prior entitlement for family pension, is eligible. For this purpose, the above and/or any other documents, such as marriage/death/income certificates of the other members which may be essential in a given situation may be used.

Different kinds of leave available to Central Govt Servants

Leave facility to CG servants - download

Current affairs for the month of october 2011- IPO exam

Current affairs for 0ctober 2011 - IPO exam