Pain points in e-Governance – 4 : Reinventing Wheel
Reinventing Wheel
Anything under the sky, is a stake holder for a government and hence governance becomes challenging. It needs constant change/innovation/adoption. In a federated system, where every state has its own powers, bureaucrats often try to leave their foot prints within the system by making change/innovation/adopt. Depending on the strength of the change, legacy may continue or perish. But the fact remains, the expenditure for any change is borne by all of us.
Change process is slow in government due to due process of rules and regulation, as compared to corporate. Hence, ideally in a technology driven governance, it’s always better to adopt the solution, which are time-tested.
Since Indian state governance is built on colonial legacy system, the process is largely same, with minor changes due to Cultural, demo-graphical situation and also geographical situation. Hence adoption of technology with minor changes is more viable in terms of efficiency.
For technical solution to central and state government, Government of India has set up institution like NIC, CDAC, let’s call them as state agency for the sake of blog. Both develops application for centre and state. A state which is proactive may get an application developed wither by state agency or by private vendors.
Many times state agencies under the instruction of centre will offer this application to state government as best practice. While private vendors will try to sell it to other government. Most know advantages of best practices are
1. Easy to implement with the learning of the previous implementer
2. Easily can make out the gaps for the new system
3. Generates creative and innovative Ideas with employees
4. Since time for implementation is less, it boosts efficiency and competence
5. Cuts down costs and time
The best practice application can be adopted in any state with minor customisation. Yet many state instead of adopting the best practices, a new process is initiated afresh, in the name of latest state of the art technology.
And this is popularly referred as reinventing the wheel, which is a duplicate to a basic method that has already previously been created or optimized by others. An attempt to reinvent would be pointless and add no value to the object, and would be a waste of time, diverting the government resources from possibly more worthy goals.
One of the reason to go for reinventing the wheel may be lack of knowledge of existing application or for fame or for getting an awards or make favour for a private vendor.
Central Government has already created a portal (https://apps.nic.in/). Both centre and state government can contribute by publishing their application details in a common portal. And central government can to popularise a mechanism where state should be encouraged to adopt best practices. This reduces lot of cost and the same can be diverted for any other better works.
I say realign the wheel, rather reinventing the wheel.
Disclaimer : Purely Personal Opinion
(Image Source: Internet, not able to find Creator)
This is unfortunate but true in any large and complex organization including government. Concerted efforts between state and central governments, sharing of best practices, productizing a successful technology or concept and scaling is required at the moment.
ReplyDeleteTrue.
DeleteVery true sir. Also, I feel the Boards and Corporations also should be asked to first take into consideration the softwares already developed by Govt rather than engaging Pvt firms for developing new ones
ReplyDeleteRightly pointed, many boards and corporation try to build there own system, pointing autonomy.
DeletePerfectly put in ...only an executive who does even the initial work in the Governament can understand the old and the new operations and he or she only can drafts in like this .... Congrats to U ..For me the first and the last paragraphs of the blog are very important and the in between lines substantiates the last para after detailing about the first paragraph ..Here the lines ,"Old wine in the new bottle " is striking very much ...The same thing has also been experianced by me too whenver there was a change of guard .. Such reinventing a wheel in this type of system will be a blatant wasteful expenditure , causes inordinate delay in finalazation besides waste of man power ... So a known devil is better than the unknown God and
ReplyDeleteA bird in hand is better two in the bush ..
I totally agree with you sir.
Deleteಹಣ ಮತ್ತು ಸಮಯದ ಮಹತ್ವ ಅರಿಯದ ಕೆಲವು ಸರ್ಕಾರಗಳು ಹಾಗೂ ಸ್ವಪ್ರಶಂಶೆ ಮತ್ತು ಸ್ವಪ್ರತಿಷ್ಟೆ ಇರುವ ಕೆಲವು ಅತೃಪ್ತ ಆತ್ಮಗಳಿಂದ ಸರ್ಕಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಇಂತಹ ನಷ್ಟಗಳು ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿದೆ ಸರ್. ಹಾಗೂ ತಾವು ತಿಳಿಸಿರುವ NIC ಮತ್ತು CDAC ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳು ಸಹ ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಿತ ಮಟ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಇಂದಿನ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ವೇಗಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದು ಸತ್ಯವಲ್ಲವೇ ಸರ್.
ReplyDeleteNIC ಮತ್ತು CDAC ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳು ಸಹ ತಮ್ಮ ಮನಸ್ಥಿತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಬದಲಾಯಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಅವಶ್ಯಕತೆ ಇದೆ ಅಲ್ಲವೇ . ಪರಸ್ಪರ ಚರ್ಚಿಸಿ ಪ್ರಾಂತೀಯವಾಗಿ ಅಭಿವೃದಿಪಡಿಸಲಾದ ಉತ್ತಮ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಹಾಗೂ ಅದನ್ನು ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಉನ್ನತೀಕರಿಸುವ ಮನಸ್ಥಿತಿಯನ್ನು ಇಂತಹ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳು ಅಳವಡಿಸಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು. ಇಲ್ಲವಾದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ BSNL , AIR INDIA ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳಂತೆ ಇವು ಸಹ ಬಿಳಿ ಆನೆಗಳಂತಾಗುತ್ತವೆ.
ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ಬದಲಾವಣೆಯ ವೇಗವನ್ನು ನಾವು ಕಳೆದ 2 ದಶಕಗಳಿಂದ ಗಮನಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಕೀಪ್ಯಾಡ್‌ ಪೋನಿನಿಂದ ಇಂದಿನ ಸ್ಮಾರ್ಟ್‌ ಪೋನ್‌ ನ ವರಗಿನ ವೇಗ ಕೆಲವೇ ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಅವಧಿಯದ್ದು. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ಹೊಸ ಆಯಾಮಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನವನ್ನು ನೋಡುವುದು ಉತ್ತಮವಾದ ಅಭ್ಯಾಸವೇ ಆದರೂ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಒಂದು ಕೇಂದ್ರೀಯ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯ ಅಗತ್ಯತೆ ಇದೆ.
ಕೋವಿಡ್‌ ನಿರ್ವಹಣೆಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ ಪ್ರಾಂತ್ಯವಾರು ನೂರಾರು ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ಸಿದ್ದಪಡಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ.ಇದರಿಂದ ಕೋಟ್ಯಾಂತರ ರೂ ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಬೋಕ್ಕಸಕ್ಕೆ ನಷ್ಟವಾಗಿದೆ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ನಾವೇಲ್ಲರು ನೋಡಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಇನ್ನಾದರೂ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸರ್ಕಾರವು ಈ ನಿಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳು( NIC , CDAC) ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರಾಂತೀಯ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳ ಮಧ್ಯೆ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞರನ್ನು ಒಳಗೊಂಡ ಒಂದು ಸಮನ್ವಯ ಸಮಿತಿಯನ್ನು ರಚಿಸಿ ಆಮೂಲಕ ಉತ್ತಮ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾಂತ್ಯವಾರು ಗುರುತಿಸಿ ಕೇಂದ್ರದ ಮೂಲಕವೇ ಪ್ರಾಂತೀಯ ಗುಣಕ್ಕೆ ಅನುಗುಣವಾಗಿ ಬದಲಾವಣೆ ಮಾಡಿ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶದ ಸಹಕಾರ ನೀಡುವುದು ಉತ್ತಮ ಅಲ್ಲವೇ? ಇದರಿಂದ ಒಕ್ಕೂಟ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯು ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಗಟ್ಟಿಯಾಗುವುದರೊಂದಿಗೆ. ಜ್ಞಾನಪಸರಣಕ್ಕೂ ಉತ್ತಮ ವೇದಿಕೆ ನಿರ್ಮಿಸಿದಂತಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.
ತಮ್ಮ ನಾಯಕತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ವೆಬ್‌ ಪೋರ್ಟಲ್‌ ಯೋಜನೆಯು ಇಂದು ಕೋಟ್ಯಾಂತರ ರೂಗಳನ್ನು ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಬೋಕ್ಕಸದಿಂದ ಪೋಲಾಗುವುದನ್ನು ತಪ್ಪಿಸಿದೆ. ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿಗಳು, ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ದಿ ಪ್ರಾಧಿಕಾರದ ಶಿಫಾರಸ್ಸುಗಳನ್ನು ಅಳವಡಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಒಂದೇ ಮಾದರಿಯ ವಿಷಯ ನಿರ್ವಹಣಾ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯನ್ನು ಅಭಿವೃದ್ದಿ ಪಡಿಸಿ ಆಮೂಲಕ ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಇಲಾಖೆಗಳ ಜಾಲತಾಣಗಳನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದು ಈಗ ಇತಿಹಾಸ .
ಮುಂದಾಲೋಚನೆ ಹಾಗೂ ಸಮಯ ಪ್ರಜ್ಞೆ ಇರುವ ಅಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳು ಆಳುವ ಸರ್ಕಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಕೆಲವೋಮ್ಮೆ ದುಬಾರಿಯಾಗಿ ಕಾಣುವುದು ನಮ್ಮೇಲ್ಲೆರ ದುರಾದುಷ್ಟ.
Very well written Ram. Yes, every one in the system needs to adopt and change. As you rightly said, there is need for central committee to review of department requirement, before application is developed/adopted.
DeleteWhen we are in comfortable zone, we scare to adopt new things. We should come out of it and think out of the box, then only we adopt new things in our life. Same applies to governing body. Sir, Officers like you only can bring the effective changes in time and stick to it till it become policy. Very good article. Pic with the article very appropriate. Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteVery frank write up indeed.govt should learn to work in sync with Pvt leaders.govt mindset should change from being a controller to enabler keeping public interest as priority..I can recharge my TV sitting at home but will have to stand in queue to pay house tax ..So many unpaid taxes due to difficulty in paying.. no alerts telephonic or postal government is just not bothered to get thier dues .. Developing a online system for a govt should not be a big deal !! If they start thinking about citizens interest instead of how they can use the system to harass and loot public!!
ReplyDeleteYes, system is designed to cater need of public, there is need for realignment. And i believe this can be expedited via digital governance.
DeleteVery well said. In my experience in the current bureaucratic set up and with the overbearing political masters the question of sharing applications is generally not welcome. Each state feels that it is great. Any proven application of other state is rubbished. If the centre were to recommend a proven application the state feels that the centre is interfering in the state's autonomy. So the state always wants to do everything on its own. So they undergo all the pains others have undergo and beat their chest that they have achieved something great which no others have achieved so far. I feel we in the state like to embrace the principle of KOOPA MANDUKA.
ReplyDeleteTrue sir.
DeleteThe clarity and brevity you bring in with these topics is noteworthy.
ReplyDeleteAs rightly said, Reinventing the wheel comes with its own cost. But the question here is how to avoid reinventing and give more prominence for realignment and therefore reducing cost and resources.
Development of applications or a products or any technologies requires indepth understanding of the process first. Then, through extensive requirement gathering exercise from the end users the application gets shaped. The end users can be a department people or the citizens. Understanding their concerns and suggestions before coming up with any new applications or a technologies will make a huge difference. If the above is taken care along with providing add-on features such as provisions for customization, scalability for next five to ten years considering the volumes etc, will make a good impact on retaining the products, applications or the technologies and thus avoid reinventing the wheel.
Yes, if decision makers understand and implement the process detailed above, as you rightly pointed, we will save huge cost and resources can be utilized for better jobs.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about different departments n their roles. But to minimise the duplication of work/ reinventing the wheel, there has to be some department authorised to approve a work and monitor it all through the process. I believe NIC or CDAC can do it. Basically what they need to do is to take proposal. Compair it with previous apps devoloped and running. How much changes to be done from that and then approve or authorise to use the original and make only changes.
DeleteThe realignment process should have a department or push the work to NIC / CADC
Perfect. Every state has its own IT department, they should own this task of coordination.
DeleteReinventing wheel gives many people comfort and work. So knowingly these things happen in government. Even if you point out it falls on deaf ears. So we need to do the best and say thank you for the support and opportunity. Otherwise you will become odd man out.
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteSir,
ReplyDelete*ʼನೂತನವಾದುದೆಲ್ಲವೂ ಸನಾತನದ ಒಂದು ಅಂಶʼ* ಎಂಬ ಮಾತಿದೆ ತಮ್ಮ ಈ ಲೇಖನದ *"ವಿಷಯ ಚಿತ್ರ"*ವೇ ಎಲ್ಲವನ್ನೂ ಹೇಳುತ್ತದೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ಒಂದು ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯ ಹೊಸ ಸಾರಥಿಯಾದವನಿಗೆ, ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯ ಇತಿಹಾಸದ ಅಲ್ಪಜ್ಙಾನ ಅತ್ಯವಶ್ಯಕ.
ನನ್ನ ವಿವೇಚನೆಗೆ *"Resuming is Better than Restarting"* ಎಂಬ ಮಾತು ಸರಿ ಎನಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಈ "Resume" ಎಂಬ ಪ್ರಕ್ರಿಯೆಗೆ ಮಾನವ ಸಹಜ ಗುಣ Ego ಕೆಲವೊಮ್ಮೆ ಅಡ್ಡಿಪಡಿಸಬಹುದೆಂಬ ಮಾತು ಅಲ್ಲಗಳೆಯುವಂತಿಲ್ಲ.
ಒಬ್ಬ ಮಹತ್ವಾಕಾಂಕ್ಷಿ ಸಾರಥಿ ಎಂದಿಗೂ ಸರಕಾರದ ಹಣ/ಸಮಯ ವ್ಯರ್ಥವಾಗದಂತೆಯೇ ನೋಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾನೆಯೆ ವಿನಃ ಯಾವುದೇ ನಷ್ಟವನ್ನು ಅವನು ಸಹಿಸಲಾರ.
ಈಗಲೇ ಹೇಳಿದಂತೆ *Ego*, ಸಹೊದ್ಯೋಗಿಯ ಸೃಜನಶೀಲತೆಯನ್ನು ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವಲ್ಲಿಯು ಹಿಂದೇಟು ಹಾಕಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಇದು ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯ ದುರದೃಷ್ಟಕರ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆಗೆ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಅಂಶ ಎಂದೆನ್ನಬಹುದು.
ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು.
True
DeleteIt's common that every new officer(except few) in charge of the department either in central or state want a share/kickback in budget allocated through this kind of expenses. As far as I have experienced 90% of govt staff never agree with cost reduction concept. I remember forest department experience where in the same forest plots are replanted again n again by different officers over a period of time claiming new expenses everytime due to failure of old plantation project (deliberately made to fail)
ReplyDeleteYes, there is need for change.
DeleteVery well said! I believe that to minimize efforts put in into 'reinventing the wheel' there should be a nodal office/department authorized to analyze & approve projects that might lead to realigning everything under one umbrella.
ReplyDeleteYes, i feel, state IT departments has to own this.
DeleteYou are Absolutely right Sir, each and every sentence makes sense, realignment of wheel is required instead of reinventing the wheel.
ReplyDeleteProblems are known to all Top Bureaucrats and intellectuals in India, But who will advice government how to prevent the loss to Government exchequer and public money in question??
In my opinion :::: it's happening due to legacy applications though good not scalable and performance issues, sometimes it's inevitable to upgrade due to everyday changing technologies, departments taking advantage of this spending lots of money, every time new technology comming into market.
I think to prevent this New technical body need to be constituted to evaluate all the proposals for Reinventing the wheel instead of using existing application And need to be made accountable and responsible for the expense incurred Vs the outcome of application and value addition ..
Finally I believe reinventing of wheel keep happening in India, Till such time Cost recovery from Concerned Ministry departments
Top Bureaucrats are held responsible and accountable SINCE most of the technology spending are Happening in India due to vested interest of the people involved in the decision making..
Yes, there is need for agency to look for it. I feel state IT department headed by very senior bureaucrat should own this. As for as recovering cost, it is a good idea, practically will be difficult to implement, till we have a full proof accountable system in place.
DeleteVery good and informative article sir
ReplyDeleteThank you Narendra
Delete