[Fsf-friends] NISG NeGP initiative at a cost of Rs.14,000 CRORES

Wed Sep 28 07:05:05 CEST 2005

NISG, a private charitable company had been made the nodal agency for all e-gov activities in India. So, any wrong that is being committed by NISG affects the whole nation. Natually we are concerned as we see red in certain activities of NISG. There is no course correction exercise despite repeated appeals! 

Other than J.Satyanarayana there is none worth any public standing working in NISG. In effect, it is a single man company. Everyone has to go by what Satyanarayana decides. In Government of India or State government you never entrust Rs.25000 crores to a single individual. Proper checks and balances are built within the system by placing multiple calibre people who have the authority to intervene. 

In the case of NISG, there is none except in the Board. But board is a policy making body and not implementing body. A single man driven company driving India's e-governance does not spell a bright future for India.

The next angle is that government cannot entrust its funds to a private company to decide its governance functioning without routing it through a tender process. 

NISG does not come under the purview of CVC/CAG or the CBI. It is not accountable to the parliament. Let us remember that all public sector companies are accountable to the parliament  through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). But NISG, being a private company enjoys a total freedom to operate thousands of crores of government money without any accountability. 

NISG cannot argue that the funds are theirs. No funding agency would contribute a penny unless the government of India agrees (Mr.Chandrasekhar, JS, GoI) to route the funding through NISG. So whatever is the money with the NISG is the money intended for Government of India! NASSCOM had not contributed anything except lending its name. 

 Just like the B1, e-Biz and the e-procurement scams, more scams can be expected from the NISG's hat. Now I learn that NISG had offered its service and funds (received from agencies on behalf of the central government) to Karnataka government to do a centralised e-procurement system. 

I have a genuine apprehension that  NISG would bring in C1 India using a pre fabricated tender document because Mr.Satyanarayana of NISG had already demonstrated C1's product before the CVC. Naturally we are all concerned at this unfortunate development where only two or three individuals decide the destiny of  e-governance of India in a totally clandestine manner using one or two corporate bodies. 

Such a corrupt practice can spell doom to India's quest for using e-governance for improving the lot of Indians.  

Every Indian who has love at heart for India would raise his voice against NISG's role in the light of the above observations.

Ramanraj K <ramanraj.k at gmail.com> wrote:
National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) is driving the National 
e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and estimated to cost Rs. 14,000 Crores.

Governance has evolved by trial and error over a very long period of 
time, much the way free software evolves these days. Governance was 
thought best to be divided into legislative, executive and judiciary. 
eGovernance could avoid the many prejudices a human executive suffers, 
and the old divisions have to be redefined. Compare:

developer : user :: legislator : citizen

A BDFL manages the developer:user gap pretty much, and the right to fork 
satisfies the disgruntled in the unlimited virtual world. The 
legislator:citizen relationship is constrained severlely by limited 
resources, and there could be no right to fork. It is for this reason, 
the Constitutional machinery elaborately defines how citizens govern 
themselves by electing legislators. The existing Constitutional 
machinery assumes paper as the medium through which the laws will be 
executed. Writ of certiorari traditionally meant "calling for the 
(physical) records" - now, if a judge could "visit" the files through an 
electronic medium, the scope, nature and methods of the writ stands 
vastly modified. Each and every constitutional device, control and 
measure has to be modified to suit the new medium of execution. 
Traditionally, constitutions are classified as written and unwritten, 
and today we have to create a new classification electronic and 
non-electronic. The constitutional machinery has to be totally rebuilt 
from scratch to suit the new medium. eGovernance actually calls for 
serious debates on constitutional reform before spending a single rupee 
on any eGovernance program.

Sprinkling "IBM", "Linux", "Open Source", "Open Standards" and other 
catch words here and there over the project are mere incidental things 
that do not go to the core issues of governance. Does the GOI expect IBM 
to give the framework for eGovernance? Is Indian legislative history 
(1600 - 1950) repeating itself ? E-Courts has been added to their 
planning boards as an after thought, and clearly shows poor planning. 
Burning 14K Crores (in two years ?) over NeGP, that too controlled by 
NASSCOM sounds very stupid, to say the least. They are looking for 
consultants (apply at your own risk ;) and I hope they don't get too 
smart ;) Bullock carts fitted with electric motors won't move 
efficiently - NiSG is only doing this and this is not my imagination: 
their advt calling for consultants has the wheel of a bullock cart with 
an e in the centre :)

There are other strange issues there too:

:: forwarded message ::

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [eGovINDIA] The Share-holding pattern of NISG as obtained from 
NISG website (MOA)
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:13:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: eGov INDIA 
Reply-To: eGovINDIA at yahoogroups.com
To: eGov INDIA 

NISG is a controlled company - You all can look at it. 

Who are all involved in it ON behalf of President of INDIA the following GOI departments are partners.

1. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India,

2. Department of Information Technology, Government of India

3. Mr. R. Chandrashekar, Officer on Special Duty (NISG), Current Joint Secretary eGovernance of GOI. Who makes most of the decisions now. He is from GOAP cadre and was in GOAP before coming as JS of GOI.

NASSCOM is facilitating this. They are SILENT partners. Which holds 52 % This is for name sake.

The Share-holding pattern of NISG as obtained from NISG website (MOA)
is as under: http://www.nisg.org/corpinfo.htm

1. Ajay Kumar Agarwal, S/o Shri Krishna Murari Lal Agarwal,
Secretary, For and on behalf of President of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Government of India, 
North Block, New Delhi – 110 001
160 Equity Shares of Rs.100/- each (One Hundred and Sixty only)
Total Amount : Rs 16000

2. Rajeeva Ratna Shah, S/o Shri Janardhan Das Shah, Secretary
For and on behalf of President of India, Department of Information
Technology, Government of India
Electronic Niketan, 6 CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110 003
160 Equity Shares of Rs.100/- each (One Hundred and Sixty only)
Total Amount : Rs 16000

3. Kiran Karnik, S/o Shri Sharadchandra Karnik, President
For and On behalf of National Association of Software and Services
Companies, International Youth Centre, Teen Murti Marg, Chanikya
Puri, New Delhi – 110 021
520 Equity Shares of Rs. 100/- each (Five Hundred and Twenty Only)
Total Amount: Rs 52000

4 Rentala Chandrashekhar, S/o Shri Rentala Ramachandra Rao,
Officer on Special Duty (NISG)
For and On behalf of President of India Government of India, 4007,
Electronics Niketan, 6, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi – 110 003
160 Equity Shares of Rs.100/- each (One Hundred and Sixty only)
Total Amount : 16000

Ministry of Personnel : 16000
Ministry of IT : 16000
Ministry of IT: 16000
NASSCOM : 52000

GOI share value 48000
NASSCOM share value 52000

Current Shareholder pattern 48 % and 52 %

For just Rs52000 one can hold majority stake in NISG which is going to decide GOI investment of Crores of rupees ?

Is it PPP ?

NISG has to be AUDITED by CAG 

CVC need to look into NISG activities !

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