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I s s u e s T h aT M aT T e r

Issue 28March 2015

IcT4W is the new mantra for women's social, technological, political and psychological empowerment, as governments and policymakers

work on a strategy-driven environment for diversity and inclusion.

In ConversatIonShamina Shafiq, Member, National commission for Women, on the role ICT can play for women in India4

Case studyVideoKheti, a mobile video search system,

promises information access to farmers

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EmpowErEd by Technology

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Trained under Microsoft’s Project Jyoti, Shanti Lal was motivated to share his knowledge with his community members, so he opened his own computer centre, where today he teaches IT skills to the village youth. Project Jyoti is a YouthSpark initiative that imparts basic computer literacy to young people, for betteremployment opportunities.

Our YouthSpark programmes are aimed at empowering youth to imagine new possibilities and realise their full potential. We work with governments, academia, nonprofits and businesses to provide youth with the education, skills and opportunities to be successful.

Creating a real impactfor a better tomorrow

Scan the QR code with your mobile device to visit us online. If you don’t havea QR Code Reader, SMS ‘Eco’ to 58888 to get the App for free.

To know more about Microsoft’s initiatives, visit www.microsoft.com/india/aboutFind us on www.facebook.com/microsoftindia and www.twitter.com/microsoftindia

1Microsoft Perspective | March 2015

The realization that diversity enriches the workplace is not new. It has been creeping into our workplace consciousness and has been a part of politico-social debates for decades as the world became a

borderless global society. India wears its diversity as a badge of honour. Yet, we have closed workplaces and a society where people feel the need to conform to socially expected norms and biases regarding gender and other differences. Every year in March, during the International Women’s Day, the clamor and narrative for a more open and inclusive society be-comes stronger. Inclusion is the keyword here.

Inclusion promotes the quality of being unique and ensures an environ-ment to preserve that uniqueness and leverage it. An inclusive workplace respects different work styles, gender, gender identity, different abilities, colour, age, sexual orientation, etc., and acknowledges it. There is no pressure to conform, to belong or be part of a clique. The vibrancy of a workplace is directly proportional to the uniqueness of its people. No two individuals, even if they come from the same set of parents, are alike. Creativity, productivity, growth and transformation follow. Moreover, the perimeter of companies today is as wide as the globe. Consumers that businesses address are diverse with unique needs. An inclusive workplace with disparate voices and thoughts offers products that are attuned to the needs of such a consumer base. Hence, it is imperative for diversity and inclusion to be a part of strategic policy for workplaces.

Over the last few decades, as workplaces made their transition, informa-tion symmetry through widespread use of technology has been a great enabler and big leveler. At the grassroots level, stories of ICT for women and their enablement to use and adopt technology and leverage it for personal and community growth are heartwarming. You will read some of those stories in this edition of Perspective. At Microsoft, we are proud to be a part of the journey of some of the most incredible, courageous and talented women in many big and small ways.

From Diversity to Inclusion, with Technology

Chairman’s Message

Bhaskar Pramanik Chairman, Microsoft India

It is imperative for diversity and inclusion to be a part of strategic policies for workplaces. Policies keep workplace leaders true to a commitment of inclusion, thus helping them harvest a rich base of diverse knowledge and perspectives of different groups of people. Workplaces around the world have benefitted from diversity and inclusion policies.

2 Microsoft Perspective | March 2015

08 Promoting Diversity & Inclusion for a More Productive Workplace

RegulaR SectIonS01 | Chairman’s Message04 | Up-to-Date22 | Profile32 | Events@Microsoft

Gender talks, especially in the urban spaces, have now moved on to conversations on diversity and inclusion with companies realizing the importance of instituting policies that promote and nurture distinct viewpoints, even as experts and policymakers are mulling ways to enhance women’s access to and usage of technology as a tool for their enablement and empowerment at the grassroots level.

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ContentsMarch 2015

This magazine is printed on recycled paper


14 In conversationNational Commission for Women Member Shamina Shafiq is well known for her fiery support of the marginalized and minority women communities. Here, she lets forth on why ICT is the best tool for women.

27 PodiumTechnology has made administration and delivery of services to a citizen’s doorstep effective for governments around the world. In developing nations though there are challenges in seamless e-governance.

20 apps for YouGuardian App is a response to the distress call of Nirbhaya episode. Now women can download it free and be safe, anywhere, anytime—With A Tap.

18 BreakthroughTeaching challenged kids needs special tutors. Once in a while, one such teacher raises the bar in excellence and the result is far-reaching.

30 States of ProgressSurat, the diamond cutting hub of India, is now on the world map for more reasons than one. It is the first city in India to go hi-tech with its citizens’ safety.

24 case StudyVideoKheti is a mobile search system for low literate farmers. Currently, a promising research prototype.

14 27

32

30 24

eDItoRIalEditor: Sangita Thakur VarmaDeputy Managing Editor: Sanjay K OjhaAssistant Editor: Adiba Ansari

DeSIgnSr. Creative Director: Jayan K NarayananSr. Art Director: Anil VKAssociate Art Director: Anil TSr. Visualisers: Shigil Narayanan & Sristi Maurya Visualiser: NV BaijuSr. Designers: Haridas Balan, Peterson PJ Charu Dwivedi, Dinesh Devgan Manjith PB & Pradeep G NairDesigner: Vikas Sharma

ONLINE & MARCOM DESIGNAssociate Art Director: Shokeen SaifiSr. Designer: Manoj Kumar VPWeb Designer: Om Prakash

PHOTOGRAPHYSr. Photographer: Jiten Gandhi

ISSueS that MatteR

20 18

Your feedback is important to us. Scan the QR Code with your mobile device and tell us what you think about this issue of the Perspective magazine.


Up-to-DateGood News

e-Governance// Gujarat has been committed to heralding inclusive growth through the use of information technology (IT). The state has the distinction of having India’s first WiFi-enabled tribal taluka, Khedbrahma, and first digital village, Akodara. On Good Governance Day in 2014, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel announced a number of e-governance initiatives, which included WiFi facility for secretariat, an IT cadre and e-waste management system. At the 18th National Conference on e-Governance held in Gandhinagar this year, Gujarat won two awards for its e-governance practices: Gold award for Safe City Surat project and Silver medal for e-procurement project in the Department of Industry. In the last 13 years, Gujarat has wrested nearly 174 national awards in e-governance. The state has been at the forefront in implementation of pio-neering e-governance applications through initiatives like Gujarat State Wide Network (GSWAN), Satellite Communication (SATCOM) and Gujarat State Data Centre (GSDC). Gujarat has been increasingly using ICT for making the system more transparent and ensure speedy redressal of grievances under ‘good governance through e-governance’ and ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ initiatives. These schemes have helped the government in facilitating citizens’ access to services in villages or blocks. The government’s endeavor to connect IT with agriculture through various programmes like i-Kisan portal and soil health cards, has received commendation from across the globe. The state tops in facilitating internet connections to all the villages under e-Gram Vishwagram project. With successful projects like e-Procurement, Targeted Public Dis-tribution System (TPDS), e-Dhara, e-Jameen, Apno Taluka Vibrant Taluka (ATVT), Online Job Application System (OJAS), e-GujCop and e-Nagar, Gujarat state continues to march ahead converting challenges into opportunities.

Gujarat govt heralds e-governance at citizens’ doorstepsWins laurels for its pro-people IT projects.

Up-to-DateNews from Around the World

on Technology for Good, for Growth & for Development

hot-news

Microsoft to roll out Office 365 free to students across the globe.


Up-to-DateGood News

BUsiness//The Govern-ment of India, in Febru-ary 2015, announced the launch of 11 central gov-ernment services on eBiz portal. The eBiz project, under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promo-tion (DIPP) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is one of the integrated mission mode projects and aims at improving India’s ranking in the ease of doing business. It aims to create a business and investor friendly eco-system in India by making all business and investment related clearances and compliances available on a 24x7 single portal, with an integrated payment gateway. In his Budget speech in July 2014, Union Finance Minister Arun Jait-ley had stated that all central govern-ment departments and ministries would

Government launches 11 services on eBiz portal

integrate their services with the eBiz platform on priority by the end of that year.

“These services are required for starting a business in the country—four services from Ministry of Corporate Affairs, two services of the Central

Board of Direct Taxes, two services of the Reserve Bank of India and one service each from Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation,” a government statement said.

Today, an entrepreneur has to log-in either from the portal of respective minis-try/department or by physical submission of forms. With the integration of these services 24x7 online on eBiz portal, he/she can fill forms online, upload attach-

ments, make payments, track the status of form and also obtain the licence/permit from this portal. “The eBiz plat-form, thus, enables a transformational shift in the governments’ service delivery approach from being department-centric to customer-centric as a single window portal,” the statement said.

“We are firmly committed to wide-ranging initiatives aimed at fostering the business environment in the coun-try in a holistic manner. Our approach includes leveraging technology to bring transparency, improve efficiency and promote convenience. eBiz is an impor-tant step in this direction,” said Arun Jaitley in the statement.

The first three years of the term would be the pilot phase, while the remaining seven years will be the expansion phase. During the pilot phase, 50 (26 central and 24 state) services are being imple-mented across 10 pilot states—Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It is envisaged that during the next few years, more than 200 services related to investors and businesses will be rolled-out across the country.

“With the integration of 11 services, an important milestone in the electronic service delivery mechanism between the citizens and government depart-ments has been achieved,” Jaitley added. Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman opined, “The integrated payment gate-way, which is also the first of its kind in the country, provides for debiting from and crediting to multiple sources in a completely automated manner. Such a gateway can serve as the universal gateway for all e-governance applica-tions. All that would be required is the integration of the department or the particular service with the eBiz portal.”

hot-newsLow-Cost Technology to Provide Clean Water In India, where around 2,000 people die every day due to lack of clean drinking water, the low-cost bio-sand filter can prove to be a miracle. The filter costs about `3,000 and works for 30 years. It is easy to maintain and filters 84 litres of water daily.

200Number of services

to be rolled out for investors &

businesses.


Up-to-DateGood News

insUrance//The country’s oldest insurance service, Postal Life Insurance, would soon go online allowing policy holders to view the status of their policy and deposit their premium online. The central processing centers (CPC) are also being established in all head post offices of the country to enable speedy processing of insurance related applications and claims. These centres would be facilitated with high speed printers and scanners along with high speed internet connectivity. After making policy online, policy holders would be able to view status of their policy, deposit premium and other details online. The insurance bonds are, presently, issued by divisional superintendents, but now it will be done by the postmasters at head post office level which will reduce the time taken in issuance of bonds. Postal Life Insurance is India’s oldest insurance service and was started on February 1, 1884. The department introduced Rural Postal Life Insurance in 1995 for people in rural areas. Currently, employees of government, semi-government and government controlled organizations are eligible for the insurance. Around 15 head post offices in Uttar Pradesh would go online, including Allahabad head post office and Varanasi Cantt head post office to offer the facility.

e-Police// Rajasthan police, in February, reached a milestone by launching a virtual police station to facilitate the knowhow of a police station’s works and its response to various circumstances. The facility is based on 360 degree IT technology in which the viewer can get an e-tour of the police station to get a detailed update. The virtual police station module was inaugurated by Omendra Bhardwaj, Director General, Rajasthan Police, at the Rajasthan Police Academy (RPA), in collaboration with Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi. The project module will initially be used for trainees and it will be released to civilians at a later stage. The information related to the rights of a complainant, witness and criminals, accused is also available on the virtual police station module. The module has been developed as a training school and its main objective is to protect human rights. Rajasthan, according to Bhardwaj, has become the first state in the country to have this kind of interactive module, which will help trainers provide orientation to policeman in the service.

India’s oldest insurance service to go online

Rajasthan gets first virtual police station module for training

TECH-VOICE

Jeannette WingCorporate Vice President Microsoft Research

“A main reason for a lab in India is the talent in this country. There are some research themes in MSR India that par-ticularly stand out for this lab. These include the very strong theoreti-cal computer sci-ence school here, which has very talented people. They stand out in the research space all over the globe, not just within Mi-crosoft Research. In fact, some peo-ple consider MSR India the Mecca of theoretical com-puter science.“


Up-to-DateGood News

healthcare// The boon of technology has reached patients’ doors. Nurses in India are now visiting patients’ homes, providing care and a range of services that would otherwise be available only in a hospital. At Delhi-based Healthcare at Home (HCAH), every nurse is handed a tablet with proprietary applications. The nurses get their visit schedules and patient addresses on their tablets one day in advance. Several professional home healthcare companies have flourished in the country in past three years. These firms are making nursing high-tech and

creating specializations in the profession with more career opportunities. The tablets help nurses access a patient’s health records, clinical history, hos-pital discharge summary, lab and imaging reports. There is also a plan that provides

information to the nurses on the medi-cines and equipment required during a home visit. The tablets are equipped with GPS to help track the location of the nurses. The aim is to keep a tab on whether nurses are sticking to promised timings and ensure their safety, given the odd hours of their duty.

Homecare nursing goes hi-tech

As soon as there is home visit, the tablet helps the nurse to notify the company and also a member of the patient’s family. An electronic home visit report is generated and sent to the doctor, the patient’s family and the company at the end of the visit. The electronic medical report includes aspects such as pictorial graphs of basic health parameters, interventions made by the nurse and other observations. The healthcare firm operates mainly in the National Capital Region, Chandigarh and Jaipur. It plans to offer services soon in Mumbai and Bangalore.

Portea Medical, a home-healthcare firm headquartered in Bangalore, with over 1,200 employees and operations in 23 cities, uses similar technique to man-age its services, with staffers carrying smartphones. Many of the tablets and smartphones used by nurses and physi-cians come equipped with proprietary features that allow it to sync with remote diagnostic devices that measure basic health parameters such as blood sugar, blood pressure and temperature with accuracy. For nurses, however, a job like this is quite different from working in a hospital or freelancing. Compared with working in a hospital, job satisfaction is much higher because nurses shoulder more responsibility. At Portea, there are opportunities for nurses to don the role of coordinators to liaison with patients, their families, or nurse educators, or take up roles in reviewing case files. They also get to specialize in therapies such as dia-betes, oncology, neuro-health or home dentistry, like doctors.

travel// The Government of India has laid emphasis on revamping Indian Railways with the use of technol-ogy commensurate with its Digital India Programme. On February 26, 2015, while presenting Rail Budget 2015-16 in Lok Sabha, Minister for Railways spoke of unveiling an information technology vision for railways, which in-cludes online information on the latest berth availability on running trains and inte-

grated mobile application, introduction of bar-coaded tracking of parcels and freight wagons, automated parcel warehouses and a customer relationship man-agement system. Of the `8.5 trillion proposed investment plan for the period 2014–19, `5,000 crore has been al-located to IT and research. The government proposes to offer an SMS alert service to inform passengers in advance about the arrival

and departure of trains at starting and destination sta-tions, provide mobile phone charging facility in general coaches and WiFi facility at more stations. The Research Designs and Standards Or-

ganisation (RDSO) has been asked to develop a device in consultation with Isro, using geo-spatial technol-ogy for providing audio visual warning to commuters on road at unmanned level crossings. With the govern-ment focusing on cutting-edge technologies through its programme Kayakalp, to enhance passenger safety and security, India is sure to see a boost in electronics entrepreneurship.

Technology to facilitate safe, modern railway

US$ 280 billion

Expected size of healthcare industry

in India by 2020.

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Promoting Heterogeneity for Workplace ProductivityRealizing the imperative of diversity as fundamental to the growth of not just a company’s bottom line, but the economy as a whole, corporate sector as also governments are inking new strategic policy clauses promoting women. By Sangita Thakur Varma

In Focus Diversity & Inclusion—Women in Tech

Men and women both bring unique perspectives to the workplace,” Mythreyee Ganapathy, Principal Program Manager Lead at Bing in Microsoft’s India Development Center in Hyderabad, echoes the sentiments of a growing number of industry leaders who are actively embracing diversity and inclusion as a strategic policy in their corporate

agenda. In fact, most recently on March 3, 2015, the World Bank created a special panel on diversity and inclusion. The Bank’s first External Advisory Panel for Diversity and Inclusion will provide a conduit between the World Bank Group and the global community and serve as a sounding board, an official statement said.

In the 21st century workplace, the discussions on equality have silently slid into an acknowledgement that women are required in the workplace not just because they have an equal right to be there, but more so because they bring in unique, new and creative perspectives that help companies and organizations perform better. Over the last few decades, information asymmetry has been demolished through widespread use of tech-nology, which has acted as a great enabler for women to experience equal opportuni-ties in the workplace and in society. “Women in India are not lagging behind in the skill on technology. There are several levels of women—urban/educated, semi urban and rural/tribal. Urban and educated women are equal partners with men in ICT movement

of women are online (global)internetworldstats (Q1 2013)

37%

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of men are online (global)Internetworldstats (Q1 2013)

41%

Gender Divide

Developed Countries

475:483 mDeveloping

World

826:980 m

Online shoppers in India in 2016 would be 100 millionForrester Consulting (november 2014 )

60%Men

40%Women


Represent

40%of the world’s labor force

Source: the Wallstreet journal

Influence up to

80%of buying decisionsSource: Deloitte

Purchase

US$ 55billion in

consumer technology products

Source: Consumer Electronics association

Make nearly

85%of all

consumer electronic purchases

Source: Euromonitor International

Control

US$ 20trillion in annual

consumer spendingSource: Deloitte

The Customer

isn’t a King, but a Queen!Did you know that women:

`

ticipation of women in the workplace. As regards Microsoft, it was one of the early adopters of diversity and inclusion agenda, believing it imperative to foster diverse skills, experiences, and back-grounds in the company for its continued success. In India, Microsoft is currently expanding the pipeline for the next gen-eration of technology leaders through science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs like DigiGirlz and the global Microsoft YouthSpark program, as a logical next step to its long history of diversity and inclusion. Women still repre-sent only 16 per cent of the workforce in scientific and technical research in India, where the global average is 36 per cent (source: UNESCO Institute of Women). Microsoft views diversity and inclusion

“Urban and educated women are equal partners with men in ICT movement and wealth creation efforts that define knowledge economy...”

M P GuptaProfessor

Department of Management

Studies IIt-Delhi

In FocusDiversity & Inclusion—Women in tech

and wealth creation efforts that define knowledge economy in our country,” observes Prof M P Gupta, Professor in the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D). Putting at rest concerns about digital divide, he adds, “It used to be a com-mon phrase of concern till recently, but no longer, since we reached high mobile penetration (total number of telephones in the country stands at 957.61 million, while the overall teledensity has increased to 76.75 per cent as of September 30, 2014).” While semi urban and rural women may not be exposed to ICT in all its force, a good number of them are using mobile phones for communicat-ing. The impact of communication alone is very high, but the quantum needs to be ascertained. As per internetworldstats (Q1 2013), 37 per cent of all women worldwide are online, compared with 41 per cent of men. In developed countries, the gender divide is minimal—475:483 million compared to the developing world, where it is 826:980 million. “In my opinion, technology is not gender biased, neither is technology policy for common usage. Women’s lack of participation is mainly due to social problems. I am opti-mistic and hopeful, this will also disappear soon. We need to work on awareness, create more success stories around women and create more scholarships/fellowships at various levels,” Prof Gupta suggests.

This is in sync with Microsoft and other technology companies’ policies under which they are actively promoting par-


as a business imperative, a source of strength and competitive advantage. The basic logic fuelling this view is the realiza-tion that to cater to a huge and diverse customer base, a company needs an equally diverse workforce. This enables the company to anticipate, respond to and serve the needs of the changing marketplace.

The diversity and inclusion dialogue is being played across the technology industry spectrum in India. On Janu-ary 22, 2015, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) held its Diversity and Inclu-sion Summit 2015, with the core theme Empowering Inclusion. Pursuing the D&I initiative actively since 2006, the industry body has been working with industry, academia, civil society and the govern-ment to promote the agenda. It is a credit to the IT and ITeS industry that almost 50 per cent of the workforce, albeit at the entry level, is women. The industry is now widening its inclusive agenda to include people with disabilities. Speaking at the Summit, R Chandrasekhar, President, NASSCOM had remarked, “Diversity, as we now know, is not just about gender and our next imperative is to unravel the various elements that impact the culture of organizations.”

Diversity and inclusion are wider in application and include apart from gen-der, races, religions, color, abilities and all minority groups. Mythreyee points to the imperative of D&I in product design, “Designing and building products should

in her name. As far back as 1995, the need for

promoting the usage and adoption of ICT, both for women’s development and by women, had been articulated. It was first mentioned in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women. In India, with more and more women join-ing the technology field, the conversation around women’s inclusion in the digital field has gained momentum. In a more general context, in the rapidly globalizing world where women wear multiple hats—business owners, consumers, farmers, entrepreneurs, scientists, professionals, employees—moving beyond the tradi-tional role of homemaker—there is a ris-ing need for them to connect and access information, knowledge and services more easily. ICT-based economic activi-ties, information systems and improved technologies and new ICT skills help them find new and emerging employ-ment opportunities created by new and emerging technologies. Technology has already demonstrated how it can include women and what this inclusion translates to in tangible terms.

Take for instance, the rapidly growing e-commerce industry in India. A report released in November 2014 by Forrester Consulting forecast that the total number of online shoppers in India will triple to 100 million by 2016. Of this, 40 mil-lion would be women. The report billed women buyers as the most significant contributors to the growth of online

Women’s Perspective Lalitha Kumaramangalam, Chairperson, national Commission for Women, addresses the inaugural session of the Policy Debate on ICt for Women at IIPa in Delhi.

“...the aspiration for a fulfilling

career in technology is

deep-rooted in all strata of society,

more so in women from conservative

background... ”

Prerana NayakSenior Program Manager

MSn

be done with representation of the consumers we target, which is by and large at least 50 per cent women in most societies around the world now.” A strong voice in the diversity and inclusion discus-sion in the IT industry, Mythreyee has contributed to building three new prod-ucts at Microsoft and has several patents

In FocusDiversity & Inclusion—Women in tech


In FocusDiversity & Inclusion—Women in Tech

shopping and a huge opportunity seg-ment waiting to be unlocked. Behind this surging population of net savvy women shoppers is their increasing digital and financial inclusion. Given this disruptive and transformative power of technology, it is an effective tool to ensure access to and inclusion of women—in the work-place, in politics, development, education and in fact, in every walk of life.

Digital inclusion of women, say experts, would help harness the power of almost half of the world population. There could be benefits not just for the technology sector but society at large. Women need not be a passive recipi-ent of technology benefits. They can be active and equal participants in tech-nology—as creators, developers and leaders. Women must have a say in the technology they need, want and want to develop. These opportunities will then ensure access to better technology prod-ucts and services for them.

Noting these needs, the Government of India is promoting countrywide digi-tization under the Digital India Program. Offshoot schemes like SAKSHAM—col-lege scholarship for specially-abled, needy and meritorious children for pursuing technical education and PRA-GATI—scholarship scheme for girls pur-suing technical education at college level, were launched recently. The government is on the right track. Prerana Nayak, Senior Program Manager, MSN, suggests promoting technology at education level as the best way to increase percent-age of women in technology careers. “If a girl with aspirations and capabilities is nudged at the time she is making a career choice, it can make a lifetime of a difference,” she emphasizes. A strong votary of women in technology, Prerana suggests connecting young girls with successful women leaders who can act as role models and mentors and nudge them into technology’s fold.

One advantage of technology is the longer spin it gives to a woman’s career. It enables them to work at their conve-nience and place of choice and thus long after they quit active work life. Prerna and Mythreyee strongly advocate stemming attrition among women in IT through counseling. “India has a different problem than countries like the US and the Euro-pean Union. We have enough women graduating from technical courses in order to fill the hiring pipelines. The big-

“...from the point of view of inclusivity...ICT can be used in

enabling women as a target

community. But this approach

depends on the social context...”

Vikas KanungoChairman, Society for

Promotion of e-governance

gest issues are attrition once a woman has spent some years in the workplace,” says Mythreyee. But why are the struggles and challenges of women technologists still finding an echo in their 21st century counterparts? ENIAC, the first computer, was programmed by six young women, including Jean Bartik, Betty Jennings and Kay Antonelli. Yet, for half a century, the world believed two men, Mauchly and Eckert, were its builders. It was in 1997, 51 years later that the original programmers were recognized and inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. “It’s 2015 now, 18 years later, and workplaces have certainly become more inclusive. But not enough for attri-tion rates among women to reduce or overall women diversity to increase beyond the average 12–20 per cent,” rues Mythreyee.

In February 2015, a policy debate on ICT for Women (ICT4W) was held by National Commission of Women and Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, to chalk out a roadmap for ICT in women’s enablement and inclusion digitally. Eminent panelists from the gov-

ernment, academia, technology and civil society came up with revealing insights into the role technology has in gender inclusion and empowerment.

In the aftermath of Nirbhaya case in Delhi, the view of ICT as a tool for women’s security gathered force. Dedi-cated 24x7 helplines were instituted by authorities and tech corporates with a conscience set about developing apps and systems to help make the city safe. Microsoft was among the first to launch such an app, evocatively named Guard-ian App, in 2013 (read Apps for You). Rajeev Mishra, Joint Commissioner, Kolkata Police, emphasizes the dual role that technology plays in this sphere—for generating awareness, using social media and the internet, on crimes against women, women’s helplines, laws etc., which come under the preventive aspect of women’s safety and security strategy and as a powerful influence on legislation. Technology helps in mining social media data for framing policies. Rajeev moots consultation with women in any approach to ICT capacity building for them.

From safety to healthcare, with so much at stake and ICT holding the key to them, makes Prof Amita Singh, Director, Disaster Research Programme, JNU & Secretary General, Asia-Pacific Gover-nance Network, pointedly ask, “Where is the choice for women not to learn ICT? Everything is going on the net, from school admission to professional courses, to passport to visa. If you don’t learn, you are nowhere.” But technology is compli-cated and even educated women are daunted by it, it is also changing fast and you are outdated in three months, as she rightly says.

Under the diversity and inclusion agenda, Vikas Kanungo, Chairman, Society for Promotion of e-Governance and an SMAC professional, prefers to approach ICT for women or as he pre-fers, women for ICT, “from the point of view of inclusivity”. He explains, “ICT can be used in enabling women as a target community to benefit from IT. But this approach depends on the social context at the particular point of time.” An indica-tion of the parochial approach taken till date is reflected in the data on women. Most information is agenda specific, for instance, mother and child health, mor-tality, etc. Vikas brings up the lack of data on the transformation that women have undergone—number of entrepreneurs,


for instance, equal participation in inter-national and national decision-making relating to ICT; creation of content that reflects women’s needs and voices; facili-tation and encouragement of women’s involvement in technological innovation; encouraging women as ICT entrepre-neurs; on the lines of EU campaign, find and celebrate digital role models (let suc-cessful women create a video and share their own digital success story to inspire girls and women to think about technol-ogy); use social media, for instance, the Every Girl Digital Facebook page, where all women in technology can put up their story, etc. Geeta too emphasizes the need for documenting digital successes, especially at the grassroots level, where “60 per cent of knowledge dies with the rural people”.

From the various viewpoints of the experts and professionals, one com-mon thread that is discernible can be summed up as: In a world where ICTs are changing social systems, social insti-tutions and social equations organically, women do not just help keep a com-pany’s bottom line healthy but help the balanced growth of the economy. (Based on interviews & secondary research)

3% of female IT employees occupied

senior roles

16% were at mid-management

level

81%remained at the junior

rung

But these are primarily entry-level positions in the IT/ITeS industrySource: NASSCOM

“When we talk of ICT for rural

women, we must debate

acceptability of technology, its

accessibility and how affordable it is for the target

group...”

Geeta MalhotraCountry Director

Read India

professionals, technicians, scientists, women in IT, etc. “India can definitely take a lead here and with the help of targeted data work towards policies that promote digital inclusion of women,” he suggests.

Inclusion is certainly high on the agenda of the Government of India. B N Sathpathy, Senior Adviser, Niti Aayog and Chairman, National Data Shar-ing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), pointed to the fact that India is in the middle of the 12th Five Year Plan and the vision now is faster, more inclusive and sustainable. “Inclusion is the agenda of the government. In that, women’s empowerment is one of the agendas of the Plan. So, where does ICT come in?” He questions and proceeds to explain the government vision. In the strategic plan document for the Department of IT, the issue of a separate agenda for inclusive IT had been raised. The general opinion was that since e-governance by itself is inclusive, there is no need to have inclusion as a separate agenda. “My vision was that the two were dis-tinct.” e-Inclusion is a measure, while the overall objective of the depart-ment is e-development. e-Inclusion could ensure targeted schemes for the women. The policy of the government is to use e-inclusion as a strategy/policy for empowering women. A powerful example of enablement and inclusion of women in the workforce through IT is the Chanderi ICT Weavers Programme under IT for Masses scheme. Girls and women from Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh who had not even attended school learnt technological application in their trade. For this reason, ICT is being promoted as a timeless tool with immense scope to transform lives.

The tool approach to ICT is limited though, according to Parminder Jeet Singh, Executive Director, IT for Change. It is not structural but a “me too” approach. Parminder emphasizes the need for women to engage more with “the struc-ture and construction of technology”, for according to him “nothing is gender neutral”. The approaches may differ, but as Geeta Malhotra, Country Director, Read India, speaking in the context of ICT and rural women says, the policymakers must view technology from three points of view—“acceptability of technology, its accessibility and affordability and con-tent”. Prof Gupta suggests various strate-gies to encourage women in technology,

Global recruitment firm, Kelly Services reveals in a 2011 report:

Doing the math

Female participation in the Indian It

workforce estimated at almost 50% in

early 2015Source: naSSCoM


In ConversationShamina Shafiq

In Conversation

Shamina ShafiqMember

National Commission for Women

An academician turned politician with strong political background, Shamina Shafiq achieved various milestones in politics nationwide. She joined as Member of the National Commission for Women on April 11, 2012 and since then has been rendering services to women, underprivileged and minority sections and has initiated various steps to improve the status of women. She is a political and social activist par excellence. She is also running an academic institution and doing yeoman’s service in the field of child education. Her main forte is service to women, especially women of minority groups, for whom she has done substantial work.

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What is your perception of ICT’s role in women’s empowerment?

in india, when we talk about empow-erment of women, it is in a rather vague context, but at the same time, it is the need of the hour. For almost a couple of decades now into the women’s move-ment, there has been a constant effort to ensure that women are empowered in this country. unfortunately, despite all the endeavors, whether we talk about the civil society, academicians or women’s movement, not much has been achieved so far. i feel iCt could be the most cru-cial tool in women’s empowerment and inclusion, as it could enable us to reach women sitting in any nook and corner of this country. india is a very diverse country ranging from Himalayas to Kan-yakumari. the terrain itself is very tough. Reaching out to a diverse set of women in remote corners is difficult. iCt is an important tool to abridge the distances and overcome logistical challenges.

“ICT is the ideal tool to eradicate the term ‘discrimination’ from our lexicon…”Shamina Shafiq, Member, National Commission for Women, in a free-wheeling chat, airs her views on empowerment and why ICT could succeed where others failed in bringing about gender parity.By Sangita Thakur Varma

You feel ICT will bring empowerment to women, irrespective of their diverse backgrounds.

We should move away from looking at empowerment of women in isola-tion. it is the empowerment of the entire unit/family. india, as i said, is diverse in nature, not just in the sense of geo-graphical terrain, but also in the number of religious and linguistic minorities that the country has. they also belong to every strata of society. the language of simple conversation is a wonderful way of communicating. if we are using iCt to interact with our family or even listen to some songs, why not go a step beyond to use it as a tool to empower people? the programmes are there, the schemes are also in place; the problem is that the information doesn’t reach to the target beneficiary. in this context, iCt for women will definitely go a long way in ensuring the expected outcomes

of the women’s movement. this entire talk about women’s movement, can we achieved with iCt as a tool.

What changes do you think ICT has brought in women in India till now and what are your expectations going forward?

iCt has liberated women—not only in india but across the world. a woman clad in a burqa (veil) is not supposed to go to market or interact with everybody. However, iCt has given her reach to information as to what is happening in terms of globalization, socialization, etc. iCt has already empowered women, maybe unintentionally. a young girl can use Facebook to voice her thoughts freely. a woman maybe confined within the four walls of her home for any num-ber of reasons—a disapproving spouse who does not want her to socialise, con-cerned parents who are wary of letting their girl child step out alone, a disability



or some other reason. the liberty of iCt is what gives a sense of freedom to a woman. the second point is not about liberation, yet it is about being empow-ered. a woman may not be totally empowered, but she has now reached a level and can contemplate how further she can go on her journey of self. take for instance distance education. again, it is a tool which has not just empowered women, but all those desirous of pursu-ing higher education, who had to give it up as it called for on-campus presence. this has been made possible because of iCt. internet has enabled access to global education. this accessibility now spans across sectors.

Do you see ICT percolating empowerment down to the grassroots?

it has already percolated. Mobile technology has penetrated remote corners and though it is not yet 100 per cent in terms of reach, it has undoubt-edly percolated to the grassroots. What next? When we talk of iCt, it’s more than mobile technology. it is a bridge to most marginalised communities and we need to work towards targeted community services via the mobile. Community based organisations (Cbos) and NGos can be networked through iCt and this will bring about qualitative difference in delivery. How can it be made possible? the print media does not give space to positive stories. the electronic media is more interested in chasing negative news. all the positivity that is going on in the country can be shared with people only through iCt.

How do you think ICT can be harnessed?

When we talk about marginalized sections, especially women in this coun-try, the context varies. tribal women, minority women, women with disabili-ties, girls or women who are homeless and have no access to security—these women definitely need a lot of attention. to begin with, if we look at just one sec-tion of society, that is the Muslim women, it is a huge chunk of population in india. About 60–70 per cent girls from Muslim households have never stepped into a school. approximately 13-14 per cent of this population is engaged in unorga-nized sector. Most of them are extremely capable when it comes to traditional

in order to address these gaps, NCW instituted a consultation on iCt policy for empowering women—iCt4W. as a logi-cal next step in this consultation process, we are now developing a framework which we can recommend to the Gov-ernment of india. it’s not about finding out the tools which can empower a girl or a woman in this country. Empower-ment is no longer just about violence and giving conventional training to women. We are taking it to the level where we discuss skilling girls in india in non-conventional trades like technology.

Gender discrimination happens despite laws against them. How can we ensure equal opportunity for women in technology space?

Gender discrimination has a negative connotation. in today’s context, we should do away with the term. technology is not gender specific. both men and women are using the same iCt tools, be it a laptop or a mobile. technology is about giving the right opportunity. opportunity also comes from choices we make.

Do you have a roadmap for taking ICT to the common woman?

Yes, sort of. technology can be used to ensure that the right information reaches out to women as well as men. it should give out a clear message on crimes and the quantum of punishment. if such messages are sent out periodi-cally and consistently via the mobile, they will surely act as a deterrant.

“Empowerment is no longer about finding tools...we are taking it to the level where we discuss...non

conventional trades like technology

for women.”

crafts like embroidery, handicraft, etc. However, they have no idea regarding marketing of products and do not have access to market. if technology is prop-erly galvanized, these women can make their work highly profitable. Here, the solution could be online stores. but they have little clue as to how they can get access to these online stores.

What is National Commission for Women’s policy perspective on ICT4W. How are you promoting it?

Honestly speaking, in my tenure of two-and-a-half years, unfortunately the perception about NCW is that it is a body which deals with violence against women. but this is just one of our man-dates. the most important mandate right now is to ensure that every woman in the country is empowered and find out ways to ensure how all women can be empowered. We, as a Commission, are trying to figure out how we can reach out to every single woman. NCW does have a dedicated website. but the question is how many women in rural area can actually access and receive the knowledge or facilities that are made available through our website.

Scan the QR code with your mobile device to visit us online. If you don’t havea QR Code Reader, SMS ‘TW1’ to 58888 to get the App for free.

To know more about Microsoft’s initiatives, visit www.microsoft.com/india/aboutFind us on: www.facebook.com/microsoftindiaand www.twitter.com/microsoftindia

Supported by Microsoft’s BizSpark programme, Kalidasan has created ‘Tuk Tuk Meter’,a Windows Phone app, which allows auto travellers to not only calculate the correct fare, but also identify faulty meters. BizSpark is a YouthSpark initiative that provides start-up companies with free software, support and visibility during the first three years.

Our YouthSpark programmes are aimed at empowering youth to imagine new possibilities and realise their full potential. We work with governments, academia, nonprofits and businesses to provide youth with the technology, skills and opportunities to be successful.



Breakthrough A Vocabulary of Ability

All disabilities come with their own share of challenges. However, deafness is classified as a social handicap that results in exclusion of the hearing chal-lenged from society. It imposes a certain amount of effort on the part of the people engaging with the deaf and often leads to frustration. Gradually,

family, community and society just give up leading to the withdrawal of the deaf in a shell. Be it the elderly who are losing or have lost their ability to hear or those born deaf, the exclusion of the hearing challenged is visible across age groups and strata of society. While sign language does make communicating with the deaf easier, again it calls for an effort on the part of the non-disabled. Generally, the deaf prefer their own community where they feel at ease communicating in a common language—sign.

In this backdrop, the efforts of Shweta Walishettar to develop an altogether new vocabulary of signs to com-municate and teach technology to hearing challenged primary school children in a remote township of Karnataka, becomes unique. What adds luster to her achievement is the fact that Shweta herself is physically challenged. Afflicted with polio when she was about six months old, Shweta grew up into an intelligent and ambitious young woman. Instead of letting her disability drag her down, she

A Vocabulary of Ability This is not a story of ‘against all odds’. Rather, it is a story of how grit, passion and giving meet technology to forge a new enabling tool and environment for young challenged learners.

BreakthroughProject Shiksha

A Sign Language Computer Usage for the Hearing Impaired

2%schools use sign

language to teach deaf children.Source: National

Association of the Deaf


BreakthroughSign Language of Technology

modified her dream of becoming a doctor in accordance with the reality of her status as a wheelchair user. Knowing that accessibility to medical institutions would not let her pursue the medical ambition, she chose to take up com-puter science at a Mysore based college for the disabled. Upon completion of the three-year course, her next destina-tion was B D Tatti Residential School for Hearing Impairment.

Shweta could have taken up a job at some corporate office, however, she had heard about the school being run by Shree B D Tatti Memorial Charitable Trust, and was inspired to work with the disabled children. The school was established in 1994 by Dr S J Tatti, in the memory of his grandfather and caters to the special education and rehabilita-tion needs of hearing impaired children. A not-for-profit social endeavor, the school keeps the number of children per class restricted to 15 in order to ensure individual attention to each. The total

number of pupils in the school is 164.Shweta joined the school as a

computer teacher. Soon enough, she realized that to teach technology and make it a tool for the empowerment of her pupils, she needed a special tool to communicate with them. The existing sign language was not devised to deal with technical terminology and they needed an altogether new vocabulary of signs—for her to teach and for them to learn. It was at this time that she learnt about Microsoft’s Project Shik-sha program through a trainer at the Microsoft IT Academy Centre in Dhar-wad, Karnataka and got the oppor-tunity to attend it. While pursuing the course, it struck her that actually there was no course content in sign lan-guage for teaching hearing impaired persons. It firmed up her resolve to develop a new computer language, albeit with a difference. It would be entirely in signs and would be meant for the hearing impaired.

Project Shiksha helped Shweta in this endeavour and once the language was ready, it was implemented at her school. With that, there was big change in the way the children were taught, learnt and interacted with computers and applica-tions. Shweta’s language has resolved a host of issues and the children are not just learning basic computing, but also 21st century skills such as team com-munication, ICT; inquiry based research and problem solving, among others.

Computer education was never so much fun for the 8–15 years old at B D Tatti School earlier. Now they have discov-ered a whole new world of possibilities beyond their school and homes and are working towards a promising future.

Truly, it takes just one redoubt-able kindred spirit to open up a more enabled and inclusive space for many around. Shweta has just shown and proved once again—where there’s a will, there’s a way! (Based on secondary research)

‘Sign’tific Success Shweta Walishettar (left) developed a sign language vocabulary of technology to train her young pupils in computers. In the process, she has set her hearing handicapped students on the path of self discovery and empowerment through the liberating aid of ICT. A vast new world of opportunities has opened for them via the virtual world. Shweta knows ICT’s power—she is a wheelchair user since childhood.


Governments are mulling it; women’s organisations demanding it; and women in desperate need of it. We are talking of safety for women that has lately become a contentious issue. Providing a button on mobile phones for women’s safety

was a top poll promise of the AAP government and the Delhi police has just launched an SOS system on Whatsapp. Technology, as has been rightly perceived, can be the tool to empower women to fight back. Microsoft realized the empowering role that technol-ogy can play for women way back in 2013, post the Nirbhaya case in Delhi that shook the foundation of society, putting a question mark on women’s safety. The result was an application, most appropriately named Guardian, launched on December 26, 2013. With a tagline, security anytime, anywhere, the app has become the Guardian Angel of women, protecting them, wherever they are, whatever the time, whenever they need it.

My Guardian AngelA personal safety tool, you can use the Guardian app to allow select group of friends, family and also public safety agencies to track you, send out an SOS when threatened and also record the incident as evidence, if required. Developed under the Microsoft Garage Project, an initiative to allow company employees to explore their creative side for com-mon good, the app is the result of six months of enthusiastic internal brainstorming and hard work by a dedicated group of staffers. In fact, Guardian was originally released to Microsoft India employees, and the Microsoft Security Operations Center uses the Guard-ian portal to keep watch on employees. Though the initial focus of Guardian developers was on addressing societal challenges around issues of women’s safety, in the process, the idea led to an app that enables all vulnerable people to feel safer in the cities. It can be used by the elderly, by parents to track children, for SOS in any emergency and in fact by anyone stepping out of home alone or staying alone, to ensure that they are just a touch away from their loved ones.

Help is Just a Tap Away The group effectively joined the dots to create a complete security cordon around women that is also easy to use. Just tap the SOS button on the Guardian app and your phone will send out a distress SMS to all buddy mobiles, notifying them of the emergency along with location details and a tracking URL. At the same time the SOS button also sends emails to default buddy email IDs and posts to private Facebook

Angel in Tech DisguiseThe Guardian app is a robust personal bodyguard for women and vulnerable citizens. You are never alone with Guardian. Help is just a tap away.

Apps for YouGuardian

Security. Anytime. Anywhere.

Be Safe, Anytime, Anywhere with GuardianEndowed with real time tracking and intelligent SOS alert, Guardian App ensures that women and vulnerable groups are now just a tap away from their loved ones. Law enforcement agencies can track crime and develop appropriate response system mining its data.

Help at Hand Just tap and your personal bodyguard takes care of the rest.


Apps for YouSecurity. Anytime. Anywhere.

groups, if registered. To enable this activity, all that the user needs to do is add the names of friends, family members and security groups to the settings. Once this has been done, in an emergency situation, your app becomes your personal alert for a vast group of your security system via the SOS button. Through the Bing Maps API, Guardian can provide you with directions to a destination or to the nearest assistance. The Microsoft Windows Azure cloud solution and the Bing Maps API lets selected parties track your movements and alerts them in times of danger. The easy to use app is free for download and can be set up by simply registering your Microsoft account using your phone number.

Robust & IntelligentGuardian is a robust personal security

1 Easy Set-up Four swipes to set-up your account��Highly�configurable�SOS�settings��One�click�account�restore�on a new device

Ensures privacy of the buddies and allows them the control to opt-out, if need be

2 Real-time Tracking for Self��Searches�the�destination�and�finds�the�shortest�route

Tracks the path on the go Real-time tracking trail stored in cloud��Optimized�algorithm�to�reduce battery consump-tion while tracking

3 Intelligent SOS��Regular�SOS�alerts�to�buddies and security agencies��SOS�continues�even�after�the phone is destroyed

��Email�and�SMS�with�loca-tion and tracking trail for buddies��No�GPRS�(Internet):�Start�SOS�through�SMS��On�turning�OFF�SOS:�Safety�Message�is�deliv-ered automatically��The�tracking�trail�and�SOS�photos saved in cloud for evidence

4 Integrated Social Media��SOS�signals�broadcast�to�Facebook Buddy List Private posting to Face-book group

Real-time tracking trail to follow and provide help

5 Locate Buddies Track people who have added you as their buddy��SMS�based�tracking:�Real-time tracking on any web enabled phone Get directions and short-est route for your buddies

6 Local Help��One�click�Emergency�Calls�(Police,�Hospitals,�Fire)

Find nearby Police sta-tions and hospitals

Route and turn-by-turn navigation for Local Help on the phone

7 Real-time Tracking by Security Agencies Real-time monitoring by security agencies��Individuals�can�be�tracked by respective organizations��Incident�reporting�like�tease, ragging, etc., along with evidence, saved in cloud��Security�agencies�can�send�Police/Medical�Help�when�on�SOS��Security�agencies�can�assign�Rescue�Marshals

device with more safety features and capabilities than any other comparable app available to Indian smartphone users today. A Window Phone 8 application, it is endowed with a real-time tracking and intelligent SOS alert function, a call for help and recording the evidence of attack. Once integrated with the relevant security agencies—women’s helpline, dedicated police cells and security agen-cies—it becomes a strong weapon for crime prevention and ensuring justice. The utility of Guardian thus spreads beyond its usage as a distress call app to a tool for mining big data on crimes and identifying hotspots for particular offences. With real time information at their fingertips, the police can develop targetted security measures.

Since the Guardian uses SMS messaging, it works with all types of phones. The best part is that the

messages do not require internet connectivity. Once the message has been sent for organisations using the security portal, the user is highlighted when the SOS is activated. The tracking URL helps friends and family receiving the SOS to alert police stations in the vicinity of the user. The power of Windows Azure is such that even when the phone is switched off or broken or disabled, once the SOS has been activated, the Guardian service running on Windows Azure will continue to send SOS signals and the user will remain on the portal’s SOS list. Within a year of its launch, the Guardian app had recorded more than 70,000 downloads. As India edges towards a completely digital nation tag, with each citizen empowered with a mobile, such an app becomes an important tool for citizens’ safety. (Based on secondary research)

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Know Your Guardian


What makes Bijal Damani so different? The 43-year-old from Rajkot, for one, breaks all your stereotypes. Looking more like a collegian herself, with a ready and most disarming smile on her face, she throws you off with her unconventional take on many things. At a time when most of us are living

smugly in our own little cocoons of success as defined by professional achievements and measured by our paychecks; when living in big cities and driving fancy cars are symbols of our grandeur; when education has been reduced to mere rote learning and chalk and talk lecture method; when coaching factories have replaced nurture and initiative; Damani has shed all these past legacies to set up newer benchmarks. In the process, she has redefined teaching, success, self and community, among other things. Down to earth and most grounded, all this success at such an early age has only served to humble her further and add to her determination. One of the 50 finalists in the 2015 edition of the Global Teacher Prize for an outstanding teacher, if this “Nobel Prize” for teaching is con-ferred on her, Bijal stands to win US$ 1 million. Recipient of several awards, for Damani the accolades are still flowing. Highly accomplished, Damani threw it all up for a career in teaching when the real-ization dawned on her that “making a difference was more important than a fat pay cheque”. With a diploma in commercial practice, bachelors in commerce, post gradu-ate diploma in business management, masters in management and masters in business

Teaching a New Paradigm Taking teaching beyond classroom, yoking it with technology, practical experience, business ethics and philanthropy among other things, Bijal Damani is charting a new course in pedagogy. The world is taking note.

ProfileBijal Damani

Bijal DamaniBorN: In Kassala, a small town in Sudan EDucaTIoN: Till Grade 10, in vernacular medium (Gujarati) at Sister Nivedita School. DEGrEES INcLuDE: Higher Diploma in Software Engineering and

BEd, Diploma in commercial Practice, Bachelors in commerce, Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management and Masters in Management. PaST: Joined a dotcom company, BrainBow computech Pvt Ltd, as Marketing Manager. currENT: Teaching Grade 11-12 at S N Kansagra School in rajkot.


ProfileBijal Damani

administration (MBA), she quit her job as a marketing manager in a technology company to become an educator. Her vision was “to train future generation of entrepreneurs to be creative capital-ists, but at the same time be empathetic towards the welfare of all stakeholders.”

Bijal transited into her role as a teacher starting as computer instructor to 1–12 students and built her people manage-ment efficiency. She also volunteered to work with special children in her school. The experience Bijal gathered here, led to her selection as the class teacher of the famously unmanageable Class X-F section. Damani’s stint with special kids had made her realize, “Every child learns, probably not on the same day and not in the same way.“ When she took charge of the energetic 17-year-olds in S N Kan-sagra School, she noted that she needed to take them beyond the school book curriculum. She was also sure that they would excel once allowed to explore the world beyond their classroom. Thus, started her experimentation with teaching of commerce beyond course books.

It is surprising that Bijal, an ace edu-cator, comes from a family where, as she says, “most of my cousins have not even completed their graduation.” It is her belief that we have to be “lifelong learners” that makes her constantly push boundaries. “After the university degree gets done, education should not,” she says, adding, “I learn something new every day from my students, my col-leagues and my surroundings. I have to be a master of whatever field that I choose.” She put her formal degrees in management, education and software engineering to good use when she began her experimentation in 2005. For the 28 students of the pioneering year, the Big Bang Bazaar, as they called it, was but a way to unleash their creative potential. Bijal knew what she was doing. It was a practical class in commerce wherein students would learn the ropes of setting up an enterprise or a bazaar right from scratch—sourcing funds, procuring goods, learning teamwork, organizational behavior, demand and sale, good accounting practices, et al. The profit from the sale added up to `8,000 and the students were in a mood to celebrate. But this educator had some more lessons for them—in best cor-porate practices. It involved sensitizing these kids from largely elite backgrounds

deprived of such a wonderful experience in practical marketing and commerce. Galaxy Bazaar is in its eighth edition now, a social entrepreneurship project under the aegis of The Galaxy Education System (TGES). In 2013, the bazaar had a net profit of `9.24 lakh and in 2014 it was `13.9 lakh. Since inception of the bazaar, it has spent more than `42 lakh on fund-ing education of underprivileged children in the city. The pre-Diwali market has in the last eight years become a signature event spread over three days draw-ing big brand advertisers and record footfalls of more than 10,000. The policy that was adopted for the first bazaar to source locally made products made by environmentally and socially responsible sellers, continues as an abiding principal and adds to the reputation of the Bazaar. Another popular classroom practice that Bijal evolved is the Innovative Product and Marketing Competition. In the shape of a competition for students of Grade 11-12, it requires them to wrack their brains and come up with a socially useful product and a complete marketing plan to launch it in the market.

Bijal’s selection as a Microsoft Inno-vative Educator (MIE) speaks for her technological prowess in education field. Microsoft selects those experts as MIEs who integrate progressive pedagogy with advanced technology to promote learning in order to better prepare stu-dents for jobs of the future. Damani has been helping students increase their productivity by developing the right skills in this mobile-and-cloud era. Her students also work in a virtual environ-ment—attend e-classrooms, network on edmodo social networking platform and submit e-portfolio for assessment. MIEs are recognized as pioneer educa-tors globally who are using technology to transform education. Bijal was selected for the second consecutive year as MIE in the class of 2014-15. MIE programs pro-vide opportunities to teachers to share their classroom practices with the best in cadre and have hands on experience of Microsoft tools. MIEs are invited to attend Microsoft in Education Global Forum each year. In April-May 2015, this year’s educator-experts will get an opportunity to visit Microsoft campus at Redmond, Washington. Bijal’s journey on the path of e-enlightenment continues as a “globally connected educator.” (Based on secondary research)

Awards & Accolades

outstanding Young Educator award, 2009 (aScD, uSa)

outstanding Teacher award 2011 (ISTE, uSa), she is the only asian Educa-tor to have received this honour

HP EdTEcH Innovators award 2010 (HP & NMc, uSa)

Butler and cooley Excellence In Teaching awards from TMa (uSa); Damani is the only teacher outside North america to have received this honour for preparing students as future entrepreneurs

Microsoft Innovative Teacher Leader-ship award 2011 (uSa)

Microsoft Expert Educator award 2013; Damani represented India in Microsoft Global Forum at Barcelona, Spain in March 2014

Guruvar – outstanding Indian Teach-er award 2009 from Varkey Group, Gems Education

Bammy awards 2013 – Secondary School Teacher of The Year (uSa)

21st century Learning Teacher of The Year 2013 (21cL and Pearson- Global)

National award For IcT In Education 2012 (Ministry of HrD, India)

Inspirational Teacher award – School Enterprise challenge (uK)

Fobes Good Samaritan award Finalist 2014

GESS Innovation in Education award 2014, Dubai

tGELF Harnessing creativity award, Global (This is not an exhaustive list)

into their future roles as social leaders through a grounding in corporate social responsibility, ethics and goods business practices. She made them calculate and compare how the cost of one cup of their coffee could fetch a week’s meal for an underprivileged family. Bijal’s focus is “on training students with 21st century skills to become responsible citizens and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.” That les-son in humanity and philanthropy led to the establishment of the annual Galaxy Bazaar on popular demand by parents who felt their children must not be


In July 2014, India had 886 million mobile subscribers (TRAI put the official figure at 933 million users) with the mobile subscription penetration at 70 per cent. Though the rural mobile and internet penetration is still a poor second to urban areas, the pace is picking up. In June 2014, the GSM mobile users grew to over 300 million in rural India. Little wonder that mobile is being viewed as the tool to ensure that the

digital India vision percolates down to the grassroots. Much earlier in 2013, Microsoft initiated VideoKheti, a mobile video search system—a research prototype—intended to explore how to provide low literate farmers the professional information that they required. VideoKheti is well attuned to the larger vision of Digital India. It works as a “Youtube for low-literate farmers” by using speech, graphics and touch interaction that helps the low-literate farming communities in rural India find and watch agricultural extension videos in a language or dialect of their choice. Microsoft is currently working to create a more generally-deployed version of VideoKheti.

Expanding Networks of Farming Best Practices VideoKheti extends the reach of agricultural extension beyond traditionally defined boundaries through a mobile interface that puts the low literate farmer in the driving seat.

Case StudyVideoKheti—A Mobile System for Farmers


Case StudyVideoKheti

Digital Beginnings Wikipedia defines agriculture extension in its simplest form as the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farm-ers’ education. In recent years, it has evolved to include communications and learning activities in disciplines as diverse as agricultural marketing, health, etc. Agricultural extension has not only been widely recognised as crucial to the growth of the farming sector, but given the changing nature and the needs of the farmers, there is an added emphasis on developing newer approaches that are region and need specific.

Microsoft Research, in its endeavour to develop systems for helping various underserved communities, has been constantly engaged in finding cost-effective technological alternatives. The VideoKheti prototype can make scientific information available to

low-literate farmers in a format that is easy to comprehend. Given the vast geographical spread of rural India and also the fact that farmers reside in remote and inaccessible areas, ICT through mobile technology promises the fastest, farthest and the most accurate reach. VideoKheti can act as the bridge to timely and accurate information for small holding farmers who have little education or means to access other modes of knowledge.

Microsoft Research partnered with Digital Green for the field study of the VideoKheti system to understand its implication at the ground level. Digital Green, an NGO established in 2006, has been engaged in agricultural extension innovation and development of ICT systems in close consultations with the existing people-based extension sys-tems and the farmer community.

The programs are deployed using grassroots social networks for wider outreach. The NGO also uses the local language of the community to facilitate understanding. It has been teaching farmers how to film and then screen their farming best practices for other farming communities. By doing so, they become ‘extensions’ or ‘influencers’ for their peer group of small holding farmers, helping them in the adoption of technologies. In a participatory approach to local content generation, the videos are produced by farmers, are filmed on farmers and are screened for farmers.

The NGO’s reason for adopting visual medium for disseminating knowledge on agricultural practices was guided by the nature of the farming community. Participatory video approach is recognised as an effective communication approach as it allows technological skilling of rural participants and in the case of farmers, it helps them identify problems and develop solutions around them. It also promotes communication between people and groups and is a valuable tool to those working for local empowerment and social change. By sharpening communication skills of rural farmers, it also develops their leadership skills as both are interlinked, according to communication experts. Participatory video is also cost-effective compared to other mediums. It can be streamed repeatedly and

is a demonstrative medium that can actually show results at close quarters.

In 2012, Digital Green was working with a local manufacturer to develop a mobile device that would function like a camera and a handheld ‘pico’ projector as well. The video model however has been extremely successful. Screened by a local mediator who answers farm-ers’ queries about the practices that are shown, the videos are commonly stored on an SD card and projected against a wall. In some villages where available,they are also shown on televi-sions and DVD players. The vision is to replace the pico projectors and TVs with mobiles or tablets by 2017 because they believe that mobiles would expand the reach of the programme by making it more affordable.

Extending BoundariesVideoKheti seeks to expand the limits of the Digital Green model by addressing two issues: First, farmers require a local mediator to help them view the videos, who then have to explain the demon-strated practices to them. This gives them little opportunity to review the video once the mediator has left the vil-lage in case they want to clarify a point or have forgotten a part of the method-ology discussed in the video. The sec-ond drawback is technical in nature. The existing system makes it an exhaustive exercise for mediators who have to sift through the entire video library every time a video is to be shown. They have to search through the projector inter-face or manually through the large stack of DVDs, as the system does not offer features to search or browse by crop, season or activity.

VideoKheti tries to address both these issues by providing an easy-to-use interface on a single smartphone or tablet. The interface can be used by a mediator as well as by the villagers directly. Designing ICT systems for rural users is pretty challenging. Among other issues, developers must also factor in the low levels of literacy of the target audience, their limited experience in using digital technologies and in a diverse country like India, there is also a multitude of languages and dialects that need to be factored in any mass reach programme. The VideoKheti prototype has been designed to overcome these limitations.


Case StudyVideoKheti

Designing a New InterfaceA breakthrough in farmer advisory ICT, VideoKheti can allow users control of content directly, in the language they want to watch the video and also the graphics that they want to view or review. Farmers can find and access agriculture related videos on their personal mobile phones. VideoKheti offers multimodal interaction between the user and the system—the user can use speech input or touch to navigate the system, and the output is a combination of graphics and audio—all at the fingertip of the farmer.

Navigation Made EasyIn the current prototype version, a comprehensive collection of 147 vid-eos can be accessed on VideoKheti. Videos have been classified by farming experts according to the features of their content. These features are organized in four levels: crop, crop cycle, type of action, and type of method. A topdown navigation tree based on these four levels has been built and a farmer needs to make a maximum of four choices before reaching a list of videos to play. He chooses a video out of the list. The first level provides the farmer a choice of 22 available crops, shown on two screens that can be navigated using a simple slide gesture. The second level is the choice of the crop cycle (e.g. pre-sowing, harvesting). The third level is the

Text Free InterfaceThe completely text free interface of VideoKheti is easy to use for semi liter-ate or even illiterate farmers not used to mobile systems. The choices are orga-nized as a grid where each navigation choice is a grid item. Except for the first navigation level where the various crops are represented by pictures, all graphics are hand-drawn, as recommended in the literature on low-literate users. The interface is based on years of research at Microsoft Research to understand how to build systems that are useful and usable by low literate users.

Limited Speech RecognitionVideoKheti has an inbuilt system to rec-ognize the dialect of the rural villages. It allows small-vocabulary recognition and is fully automatic and requires a very small amount of training data. The prototype mobile system was tested in 2013 at the field level. Despite the novelty of the system, it was found that users adapted to it fast.

Partnering with ground level NGOs like Digital Green, VideoKheti can surely bring a wider network of farmers to learn community-driven farming best practices and reap the benefits on the go. More research to make VideoKheti a true and reliable companion of farmers is on. (Based on secondary research)

type of action (e.g., field preparation, disease management) and the fourth level is the type of method (e.g., organic, conventional). Some paths lead to the video choice screen in fewer than four levels; for example, the choice of type of method does not make sense for con-cepts such as irrigation or sowing.

Pictures Speak... More than a thousand words, especially for farmers who are low literate, new to technological applica-tions and apprehensive about using them.

Skills on the GoChoose one

out of 22 crops

Success Stories Sowing + Crop ManagementPre-sowing

Field Prep

SeedSelection

GerminationTest

SeedTreatment

Interculture

Irrigation Sowing Nutrient Mgmt

Disease Mgmt

Harvesting

Harvesting

Post Harvesting

Choice of 3 Methods

Choice of 5 Methods

Choice of 3 Methods

Choice of 3 Methods

Met

hod

Act

ion

Crop

cycl

eCr

op


Way to Good GovernanceICT paves the way to better governance through active stakeholder participation and transparency, provided one plugs the gaps.

Podiume-Governance

Satyanarayana Sangita is Professor and Head, Centre for Political Institutions, Governance and Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Nagarabhavi, BangaloreBikash Dash is a Doctoral Fellow, Development Administration Unit, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Nagarabhavi, Bangalore

India is fast catching up with other countries and promoting e-governance in a big way to improve the quality of governance and service delivery. e-Governance can be classified into two groups, viz., e-administration and e-democracy. e-Administration

aims at harnessing ICTs to streamline administrative procedures and enhance public service delivery. This vision of e-government is greatly influenced by the ideals and objectives of new public management, which mainly focuses on lean government (downsizing, less bureaucracy and few rules) for provision of customer-friendly service at a lower cost such as renewing of driver ’s license or declaring one’s taxes online. e-Democracy, on the other hand, seeks to harness the internet for a more direct empowerment of the individual. Projects that directly concern the workings of the gov-ernment include online voting, online polls, online deliberations or the use of e-mail, comment forms or other interactive internet features to contact administration officials or legislators directly.

Quality Service Deliverye-Governance improves quality of governance and thereby quality of people’s lives. ICT enabled reforms can yield many benefits including ability to harvest more infor-mation, faster and more accurate response to requests and enquiries, direct access to transactions and customer accounts, lower administrative costs, increase in the quality


Podiume-Governance

of feedback to policymakers and man-agers, etc. ICT can make a significant contribution to achieving good gov-ernance, which is efficient and effec-tive. e-Governance facilitates simple, accountable, responsive, transparent, quick, easy, corruption free and citizen-friendly administration. It can serve a variety of benefits such as speedy delivery of services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient gov-ernment management, less corruption, increased transparency, revenue growth, and cost reduction (www.worldbank.org.egov). e-Governance can improve the interactions with business industry and citizens for speedy delivery of services at a lower cost. It can improve govern-ing processes (e-administration) con-necting citizens (e-citizens) and building external interactions (e-society). It can facilitate speedy delivery of services to the citizens. Use of IT in govern-ment facilitates an efficient, speedy and transparent process for disseminating information to the public and other agencies. Electronic governance reduces delay and corruption, provides more service and less cost.

It can promote efficiency in govern-ment management and cost reduction. e-Governance reduces paperwork and thereby removes red-tapism. It eliminates secrecy and facilitates trans-parency in administration. It ultimately lessens corruption. ICT can make civil servants responsive and accountable with the free flow of information regard-ing administration and policy. Application of ICT in promoting gov-ernance enhances public participation, giving them the opportunity to share information and suggest improvements in the administration.

Speedy & Cost Effective e-Governance can improve the efficiency of the government by streamlining administrative procedures (simplification and transparency) for effective communication within and outside the government departments. First, rationalization and simplification of the vast number of regulations and procedures cut short delays and minimise corruption. Secondly, new regulations and laws through ICT are essential to ensure accountability and

supply of quality goods and services by the private and public sector without harming the larger society. In this regard, regulatory authorities, consumer laws and laws relating to child labour, environment pollution and so on are to be strengthened to prevent both market and state from human rights violations. Thirdly, removal of obsolete laws and discretionary powers, simplification of procedures to avoid administrative bottlenecks and constitution of single windows ensures speedy disposal of

cases. e-Governance can improve the interactions with citizen and delivery services at a lower cost and time. For instance, many government departments provide information about their activities and schemes to the public through their websites.

Single Point Services ICT also provides services and informa-tion at one point and thereby helps citizens avoid repeated visits to the concerned departments, wasting valu-

Inequalities: ICT brings regional and social inequalities. For instance, half of the population in developing countries have not even phoned once in their lifetime. Only less than one per cent of the population have access to computer facilities. Secondly, most of the facilities are available in urban areas. Thirdly, the use of these facilities is very low, since many peo-ple have no knowledge of operating them. Fourthly, the lower percentage of usage is also attributed to frequent failure of kiosk and absence of relevant data. It was reported that many websites are not updated and wrong data was entered without cor-recting the old mistakes. For instance, the old manuals were transferred without carrying out the corrections. Most of the websites were not fed with socially relevant data.

Organizational/Techni-cal/Human Reasons: Many studies reveal some discouraging sides of the application of e-govern-ance in developing coun-try context. ICT has failed to promote desired results in facilitating governance

because of organizational, technical and human rea-sons. Non-availability of proper human resources and lack of appropriate strategy are some of the roadblocks in the path of using ICT for governance purposes. The virus prob-lem which is intentionally created and the unfavora-ble attitude of the officials in hindering the promo-tion of e-governance initiatives in the fear of losing jobs, with machine replacing men in e-governance operation, are two important challenges so far as the application of e-governance in India is concerned.

Technological, Manage-rial and Financial: Up-dating of data, database in local languages, stand-ardization in all areas like

encoding, application logic for common ap-plications, user interfaces, preparing data dictionar-ies, making appropriate cyber laws, procedural and legal changes in the decision and delivery making processes as well as in the institutions, en-couraging private-public partnerships can solve these problems for the success of the e-govern-ance projects. Efforts are needed to incorporate local languages and local content in internet in a massive way. There is a need for developing voice enabled internet service with Indian languages and applications. Political Will: The will power of the political leadership is essential.

The Flipside of e-Governance


Podiume-Governance

able time and incurring heavy expen-diture. For instance in Andhra Pradesh, citizens can have access to services and information of various central and state government departments through 39 e-seva centers and 350 service centers located in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and Ranga Reddy district. Such centers are established through the state. The services provided in these centers include: payment of electricity, telephone bills, water and sewerage, property and sales tax, reg-istration of births/deaths, issue of birth/death, caste/nativity certificates, sale and receipt of applications for passport, telephone and driving license, reserva-tion of bus tickets. Citizens can avail online facilities such as e-forms, e-filing, e-payments and e-ticketing. Information about the government departments such as tourism, education, health, revenue and rural development can be obtained from these counters. Near about 6 lakh households are availing this facility in a month.

Transparency in WorkFreedom of information provides transparency, empowers the citizens to ensure accountability and prevents administration from corrupt practices. In many developing countries, including in India, regulations are often complex and sometimes inconsistent. They tend to be numerous and difficult to comprehend not only for the public, but also for the employees responsible for implement-ing them. Weak implementation of laws and regulations results in the flouting of rules and corrupt practices. Such violations are more, where administra-tors enjoy vast discretionary powers without oversight system (particularly by clientele group) that monitors the staff performance and provides rewards and sanctions based on performance. In fact, administrative delays and cor-ruption were attributed to complex and non-transparent administrative proce-dures. Secrecy and lack of openness in transactions are largely responsible for corruption in official dealings. Infor-mation on income and expenditure enables people to hold civil servants accountable, reducing inefficiency and corruption (World Bank, 2000).

Empowerment and EquityParticipation of the stakeholders in pol-

icy formulation and implementation is very important for achieving good gov-ernance. The advent of ICT age has sig-nificantly changed the nature and extent of citizen participation fundamentally differentiating from the traditional kind of participation. The e-governance proj-ects based on government to citizen are providing immense opportunity to the citizens in shaping the policies and improving the service delivery. Citizens’ opinions, needs and preferences can be communicated to the concerned authorities to provide relevant services and goods. This feedback helps in mak-ing service delivery more qualitative and cost effective. The online facility of complaining and suggestions helps the citizens to participate in delivery of services effectively. e-Governance proj-ects like Bhoomi, Gyandoot, FRIENDS, e-Seva, etc., and most of the govern-ment websites have a feedback section helping the stakeholders to participate directly with the delivery system bypass-ing the intermediaries.

Use of personal PCs for voting reduces election related violence in the form of booth capturing and influencing voting through the use of money and muscle power. This will provide oppor-tunity for citizens to enjoy their sacred right—right to vote—without any out-side threat which, in turn, will strengthen the democracy.

Access to EmpowermentAccessibility means the process is the same for all the stakeholders with multiple and reciprocal pathways for information flow. This may require actively soliciting input from significant stakeholders, not from lobby groups and institutions, but through creating structures to foster communication. Discussing the digital divide issue, some

scholars have expressed their view that information age direct democracy poses new social segregation challenge for those who are information rich and information poor on an individual and societal basis. It is held that less people have accessibility to the ICT. Therefore, promotion of e-governance would benefit the technology-haves. The practical application of e-governance, however, has disproved this idea. What is happening to the beneficiaries of Bhoomi project? How is the Gyandoot project operating? The kiosks installed for running these projects serve the demands of the beneficiaries. It is immaterial whether the beneficiaries have the knowledge to use computers or not. The soochakas or the informers in charge of the local kiosks in case of Gyandoot, or the officials in case of the Bhoomi project, serve the needs of common people.

The poor have less voice on account of their inferior social position. This has been revealed by many studies on Panchayati raj system and peoples’ participation. In grama sabha meetings, these people cannot express independent views either due to lack of awareness or due to fear to influential leadership in the area. In this regard, e-governance promises a lot for them. It is easier for the people to lodge complaints against the erring local political and administrative officials.

Delivering service at the doorsteps of the citizens—poor and rich—and providing equal opportunity to all without considering affordability of ICT accessibility, most of the e-governance projects bring equity. The poor can pay or collect whatever is required in their nearest kiosk, instead of going to the distant places losing time and money which they would have to do in case of government departmental deal-ing. Generally urban areas are more developed with adequate infrastructure whereas the rural areas do not have. Therefore, the people of the rural areas suffer a lot with regard to their inter-action with the government, thereby causing an equity issue. However, this equity issue can be avoided and it could be used for rural development.

(Excerpted from ICT, Governance and Service Delivery in India: A Critical Review)

The online facility of complaints and suggestions helps

citizens participate in delivery of

services. Citizens’ opinions and

preferences can be communicated...


Surat, the diamond cutting hub of the world and also a textile hub, with its rapid adoption of technology for civic improvement has set the example for other cities to follow. Recently, it grabbed headlines for partnering with Microsoft India to become the showcase smart city in Microsoft’s CityNext program. Among the early adopters of technology and e-gover-nance, Surat is one of the 13 cities around the world that is building a foun-

dation for sustainable growth and prosperity using technology. Backed with the vision to enable a smarter delivery system for services and promote greater citizen interaction, it launched one of its most talked about programs, the `80 crore Surat Safe City project, on January 18, 2013, inaugurated by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Securing the Diamond City: The ChallengeA busy and important commercial hub, Surat is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. With a population of 5.2 million approximately, and a police strength of 93 personnel per 1 lakh citizens, security of citizens was a challenge. Discussing the need for Safe City, Rakesh Asthana, Commissioner, Surat Police says, “We must use technol-ogy in a big way, as we are short of manpower. Technology helps in multiplying the

Surat

Safe in SuratSurat Safe City project demonstrates the power of public private partnership for greater good. Citizens of Surat sleep in peace now as policing goes hi-tech.

States of Progress

Surat Safe City Surveillance Project


States of Progress Development News from States

police force. Secondly, it aids crime rate reduction, better surveillance and better control of crime, in as much as, we can investigate the crime easily after seeing the video footages.” In an earlier inter-view, Asthana had commented that the role of police being to maintain law and order, peace in society and prevention and detection of crime, the shortage of manpower was a huge impediment in the discharge of these duties. This led the police top brass to brainstorm and they realized that technology should be leveraged to the maximum to bridge the gap between the police strength and the growth of the city. The other reason that prompted Surat police to look at tech-nology for security was, as Asthna said at the Governance Now conclave orga-nized by Microsoft and Asia features in September 2014, the enhanced threat perception in the minds of the citizenry. The bomb blast of 2007 and the repre-sentation made by the business commu-nity of the city to the Commissioner to secure business activities against crime were added impetus. All these various considerations led to the deployment of the surveillance project, a secure vigi-lance network to act as the Surat police’s electronic hidden eye. Asthana who was visiting UK on a training in 1996, was hugely inspired by the surveillance model of the Scotland Yard. “They had shown us CCTV systems and control room,” says Asthana, adding, “Britain is the biggest surveillance coun-try. They had brought down crime—not only prevention, but the detection part as well—through video footages. Traffic management was also being conducted through CCTV camera.” The Commis-sioner was impressed and decided to implement the same model in India. The first prototype began on a small scale in Vadodra, but it was in Surat that Safe City project was deployed in full.

Perfect Partnership“Public participation and policing played a key role in implementing the Safe City project,” Asthana acknowl-edged at the conclave. He tells us, “The project is in PPP model supported by the government.” Traffic Educational Trust floated with the Commissioner as its head collected `12 crore from citizens of Surat.

People were motivated through one-on-one meetings to contribute to the cause, Asthana had revealed at the conclave. Public participation was also encour-aged by inviting people from all strata to provide inputs on the project. The PPP was then executed between the Surat City Police Department and Surat Traffic Education Trust. Tenders for the project were evaluated according to The World Bank norms and work order issued in August 2012. “We completed the first phase of the project in four months—construction of the command and con-trol centre (CCC) and the installation of cameras, wavelength and the network and launched the pilot in December 2012,” Asthana discloses.

The SolutionThe authorities wanted a solution that could be used by the public to access the police. As Asthana said in an earlier interview, policing is people centric and a lot of their work is citizen oriented. Hence, it is important that any tech-nology interface deployed for solving citizen issues must be accessible to the public online and trackable. Since this involved a lot of paperwork, all had to be converted to online modules. They shortlisted Microsoft platform for various reasons, but primarily, as Asthana put it, because it is easier to use and also the

most widely used technol-ogy all over the world. The other reason for deploy-ing Microsoft technology was because “it is scale-able, reliable and secured.” Expressing happiness with the system, he says, “In the last two-and-a-half years,

not a single camera has been down and the system has been working exceed-ingly well.” The solution runs on Micro-soft SQL Server and Windows Server Operating system. Surat surveillance system enhances safety by assisting the city police to proactively monitor, anal-yse and respond to security and crime threats, much in line with the Commis-sioner’s expectations. “The expected outcome is better maintenance of law and order, crime prevention and detec-tion, and increased confidence of public in police. The perception of public safety or security in the minds of people should go up,” he says.

The state-of-the-art CCC deployed is equipped with 280 sq ft video wall to monitor real-time stream recordings at various city locations. A datacenter of enough storage capacity which is com-pletely scalable has also been deployed. A wide camera network was created at critical public spots, major traffic junc-tions and entry-exits of the city. The vigilance network is monitored at the CCC, which is located in the heart of the city at the Commissioner’s Office. With inclusion of integrated physical security information management system, this actionable intelligence technology can generate the city’s 2D mapping reports, which will be a facilitating system for mechanized source planning and execu-tion for incident management of the city during natural and manmade calamities. It will also support the disaster manage-ment and excavation plan of Surat. The CCC collates and analyzes surveillance inputs from various camera feeds. The video footage generated by cameras can be stored for 30 days. The project to secure public and industry from crime and terror is being implemented by a consortium. Safe City will be scaled up to 1,500 cameras covering almost 5,000 locations and “the government of Gujarat is planning to expand it to other cities”, reveals Asthana. The Surat project is being implemented in five phases. In the first phase, 104 CCTV cameras were installed.

The ResultAs Asthana said at the conclave, a reduction of 15-20 per cent in the crime rate in the city. Surat is certainly on the path to becoming a totally Safe City. (Based on interview & secondary research)

20%reduction in crime rate in Surat post

the first phase launch of Safe City

Any technology interface deployed for solving citizen issues must be

accessible to the public online...

Microsoft technology is the easiest to use...


In tune with its commitment to the education sector, Microsoft India held a series of programmes to promote skills and knowledge development among educators. In November 2014, Partners in Learning, an initiative of Microsoft that enables

educators and school leaders to connect, collaborate, create, and share, with the aim of helping students realise their greatest potential, held the Indo-US Summit and Education Summit with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). In the same month, Microsoft was the sponsor for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (FICCI’s) Higher Education Summit. A leadership and vision workshop on the role of leadership and the culture of achievement in schools and the role of technology and tablets in creating collaboration among students was conducted with around 40 school principals. TEI workshops held in Bangalore and Gurgaon also saw the partcipation of a large number of faculty. Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert Meet was held in December 2014, among other high profile events for teachers.

Back to School for Better EducationAt Microsoft workshops for educators, the aim is to promote innovative tech-enabled teaching methods.

Events@

MicrosoftMicrosoft Education Network Platform for Expert Educators

Innovative Teachers Learning is a continuous process at Microsoft. It promotes innovative education methodologies among educators to enable students achieve their potential.

Change Leaders Educators from various schools at a workshop to learn 21st cen-tury skills. The aim is to facilitate holistic teaching methods in schools.

Devesh has developed a groundbreaking solution, which at first maps a child’s actions, and then analyses that data to create apps and interactive games that enhance learning abilities in dyslexic children. This innovative solution won Devesh’s team the Imagine Cup national finals. Imagine Cup, a global technology competition, is a YouthSpark initiative that offers students a platform to use their creativity and knowledge to help address the world's social challenges.

Our YouthSpark programmes are aimed at empowering youth to imagine new possibilities and realise their full potential. We work with governments, academia, nonprofits and businesses to provide youth with the education, skills andopportunities to be successful.


Scan the QR code with your mobile device to visit us online. If you don’t havea QR Code Reader, SMS ‘For’ to 58888 to get the App for free.To know more about Microsoft’s initiatives, visit www.microsoft.com/india/aboutFind us on www.facebook.com/microsoftindia and www.twitter.com/microsoftindia

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