The International Journal Of Engineering And Science (IJES) ||Volume||2 ||Issue|| 5 ||Pages|| 50-56||2013|| ISSN(e): 2319 1813 ISSN(p):

: 2319 1805

Overview of Information Technology Enabled Services for Efficiency and Effectiveness of Central Government Sponsored Schemes. Mgnrega In Kashmir A Case Study.
Mohammad Asif Naqshbandi
Assistant Professor School of Business Studies Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, Pulwama, Kashmir, INDIA

--------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT-------------------------------------------------------World IT spending in 2012 touched three thousand five hundred million US dollars and is expected to reach four thousand million this year. This amount is pintsized when compared to the value IT complements to the organisation through increased efficiency effectiveness and transparency. However government processes worldwide are still like a blue ocean where potential of information technology enabled solution have not been exploited yet. And the problem is more intense when it comes to diversified nations like India. All of us are witness to the fact that despite the availability of money, potential and other required resources our governance have never been able to achieve optimal levels of efficiency and effectiveness due to outcome of several factors like redundancy, improper time management, effective supply chain management and many more. MGNAREGA being one of the pioneering innovative and liberal schemes by government of India is suffering efficiency, effectiveness and transparency deficit. Even a one percent increase in efficiency would mean several thousand days of employment to unemployed and infrastructure up gradation. This research work will look forward to outline information technology services for effective and efficient MGNREGA in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

I.

INTRODUCTION

World IT spending in 2012 touched three thousand five hundred million US dollars and is expected to reach four thousand million this year. This amount is pintsized when compared to the value IT complements to the organisation through increased efficiency effectiveness and transparency. However government processes worldwide are still like a blue ocean where potential of information technology enabled solution have not been exploited yet. And the problem is more intense when it comes to diversified nations like India. All of us are witness to the fact that despite the availability of money, potential and other required resources our governance have never been able to achieve optimal levels of efficiency and effectiveness due to outcome of several factors like redundancy, improper time management, effective supply chain management and many more. MGNAREGA being one of the pioneering innovative and liberal schemes by government of India is suffering efficiency, effectiveness and transparency deficit. Even a one percent increase in efficiency would mean several thousand days of employment to unemployed and infrastructure up gradation. This research work will look forward to outline information technology services for effective and efficient MGNREGA in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

II.

INTRODUCTION TO MGNREGA

Enacted by the legislation on august 25, 2005 The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee scheme. The act guarantees a minimum of one hundred and fifty days of employment in every financial year to the members of any rural household who wish to do any unskilled manual public work at a fixed minimum wage. The government has the obligation to pay the registrants of the scheme at their home if they are not provided with any assignments. III. PROBLEM STATEMENT. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has significant impression on the financial condition of rural India by ensuring guaranteed employment or payoff. And besides that it has also helped in the development of infrastructure of villages. Being implemented by the Rural Development Department it ensures 100 days job for every house hold in rural India. .Under the scheme over 10.50 lakh job cards have been issued to the rural labour families during the last four year creating about 10 crore man-days of work for them by November 2012 end. However Figures from the official sources of MGNREGA clearly indicate higher inefficiency levels in the execution of the scheme in terms of demand

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supply management, improper time management. The following figures clearly indicate the state of scheme. i:e out of 790000 job cards issued only 203819 have actually demanded employment. Only 196682 were provided employment out of which only 4645 have been given 100 days of employment by first week of December 2012 for current financial year with 65% funds still unutilized. The scheme is already in the scanner of the Comptroller Auditor General because of reports of misappropriation of funds .It will be pertinent to mention here that the High Court has served notices to officers and elected representatives of Doda district where MGNREGA had been allegedly misutilised. A public Interest Litigation filled by advocate SK Puri on behalf of general public in the Jammu High Court wherein it has been alleged that government officials, public representatives and affiliated officials with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme have made it a money minting machine which is eroding the government exchequer, which was meant for poor people. The Public Interest litigation also alleges that under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act officials and elected representatives had tapped money on the name of Special Police officers (SPOs), daily wagers, minors and even deceased persons. Citing the examples as the proof it states that
21%

79%

Only 21 % have actually demanded jobs out of total registered (2012)

one Noor Mohammad, son of Butta Kumar, who died on May 29, 2011 was marked present from November 21, 2011 and Rs 3,620 labour stand drawn in his favour as per information obtained from right to information act .Similarly, Paramvati Devi, wife of Prem Raj, who died on July 17, 2009 was marked from December 24, 2011 to January 7, 2012 in the attendance roll and 1815 were withdrawn in her favour.

Only 2 % of the employed have been provided 100 days of employment.(2012)

65% of Funds remain unutilized for state of jammu and Kashmir at year end (2012

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A report Published by the National Level Monitoring ( A national agency mandated for regular monitoring of Rural development Programmes) after the exhaustive survey of almost all districts puts follows the following facts about the Mahatma Gandhi national employment guarantee act in Jammu and Kashmir. NLMs have found that in only 31.8% villages visited by them, awareness levels were good and all sections of the society were aware on provisions and features of MGNREGA. In39.2% villages, only few interested sections and the educated classes were aware of the provisions and features of MGNREGA. In almost 28.9% of the visited villages the awareness levels on MGNREGA were really poor. The spirit of the scheme guidelines for strengthening the wage seekers right to claim unemployment allowance if work is not provided within the stipulated time seems to have been diluted at the grass root levels. As it is in very few villages people demand work, orally on in writing and where they do, only in 17.8% villages, acknowledgement receipts are given to them. The practice of not acknowledging demand will weaken he guarantee element of the scheme and make this into a supply driven scheme also depriving the poor of the job opportunities during the lean periods and will fail the programme on its objective of curbing distress migration. It was found that in 20% villages, many Job card holders were not having Job Cards in their custody. In majority of the cases these Job Cards were with the PRI staff and functionaries and they reported that they have collected for updating the information have been willingly handed over to them by the job card holders. As per NLM reports, in only 45.1% villages, all the Job Cards checked were having photographs of all the registered members of household. In 5.9% villages, entries made in many Job Cards were not matching with the respective muster rolls. In 98.5% villages NLMs have reported delayed payment of wages. Extent of delay and frequency varies as much as the reasons for the delays. NLMs have reported that in only 1.4% villages dissent/objections were raised during the last social audit meeting and 1 issue raised/complaints were pending/not disposed of so far. It is evident that the provision of entitlement for minimum wages has not been complied in all the cases, in 5.9% villages NLMs have found instances of workers being paid less than minimum wage rates. Mostly these Villages are the ones where the payment to wagers are being made on piece rate basis and the reasons for being paid less than minimum wages is due to less output of work by the workers.

The above facts clearly indicate the efficient, transparency and timeliness deficit n the execution of the scheme. And besides that there are number of reports which have come from time to time reporting the misappropriations in the execution of Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Although it will be pertinent to mention here that a lot has been done to improve the execution of the scheme and same has improved a little however the nature of scheme being enormous in size makes sometimes difficult for all the stakeholders to be strict on deadlines and targets. How information Technology can be a remedy for the problem. Although the operations of Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and whole country to an extent are computerised however its impact on the scheme is not as it should be. Every small of big business or government process is completely dependent on availability of adequate information at all the levels of management and is defined in terms of CATA test which means information at every level or point of management should be complete , adequate ,timely and accurate. Information technology enabled services have helped business organisations worldwide to qualify CATA compliant information at all the levels of management which in turn has helped the organisations to attain higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Information technology makes it possible through employment of various technologies ranging from cloud computing, hand held devices , satellite communication links , mobile phones to new cutting edge solutions like Business Intelligence, Knowledge management, real time supply chain management. However in the context of the current problem it will be very important to analyse the feasibility of solution in terms of IT literacy and technology infrastructure reediness. A brief survey of almost all the districts to analyse the technology infrastructure reediness reveals the following scenario.

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Connectivity Type District RAJAURI KATHUA KISHTWAR REASI RAMBAN SAMBA KUPWARA KARGIL POONCH GANDERBAL BARAMULLA DODA BANDIPORA ANANTNAG LEH (LADAKH) KULGAM BADGAM PULWAMA UDHAMPUR SRINAGAR JAMMU SHOPIAN Total No.of Computer 5 12 0 0 2 10 42 0 36 13 4 14 4 4 0 4 3 5 15 0 31 1 205 Dialup 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 8 ISDN 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 VSAT 2 2 0 0 1 2 8 0 5 1 1 5 0 12 0 3 1 1 4 0 10 0 58 Broadband 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 10

Infrastructure Details of Block Headquarters and Block offices of all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir acting as primary point of contact of the scheme. It seems that the basic required infrastructure is available, in order to make optimal use of the resources other technologies need to be integrated with the scheme. The rest of the paper will focus on the available technologies that can transform the modus operandi of the national project.

Technologies as potential IT enabled services for MGNAREGA in Jammu and Kashmir. Business Process Reengineering/Government Process Reengineering for Information technology Adaptable Business process:To make any big or small business process completely information technology driven it is a prerequisite that the process should be adaptive to the technology implementation which ordinarily is not for majority of cases. In order to overcome the situation a new approach came into existence which primarily involves redesigning of whole business process to make it adaptive to technology implementation..

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Figure Depicting Concept of Business Process Reengineering.

Business Process Reengineering does mean a dramatic change for a given organisation. It involves the overhaul of management systems, organizational structures, incentive systems employee responsibilities and performance measurements. When executed Business Process Reengineering has influence on the every dimension how business is being conducted today. A recent survey has showed that some 88 percent of CIOs were satisfied with the end result of Business Process Reengineering efforts (Motwani, et al., 1998). Successful Business process Reengineering can result in huge discounts in cost or cycle time. Business Process Reengineering has created substantial improvements in quality of service. The successes have spawned international interest, and major reengineering efforts are now being conducted around the world (Covert, 1997). Enterprise Resource Planning: Enterprise resource planning is technology driven system which ensures efficient/ optimal utilization of all resources for a given business process. Coined by Gartner group for the first time in 1990 it defines ERP as follows. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is defined as the ability to deliver an integrated suite of business applications. ERP tools share a common process and data model, covering broad and deep operational end-toend processes, such as those found in finance, HR, distribution, manufacturing, service and the supply chain . Characteristics of an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems:

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An incorporated system that operates in real time in synchronisation with Business Process. A common database, which caters to the needs of all the modules of an Enterprise Resource Planning system. An adequate Interconnectivity infrastructure which ensures flow of information and data across the modules. Common benefits of an ERP system:-

Common Modules of an ERP system.

Access to data for instant decisions Automated ordering and payment, lowering processing charges Improved customer response Improves the productivity of resources Increases organizational accountability and transparency. Inventory reduction Lead time reduction More controls thereby lowering the risk of mis-utilization of resources Data entry on real time basis Reporting according to global standards

However it is a completely new issue that weather ERP is to be procured for a particular process or manufactured for that particular process. Business Intelligence. Business intelligence (BI) is a set of theories, methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information for business purposes. BI can handle large amounts of information to help identify and develop new opportunities. Making use of new opportunities and implementing an effective strategy can provide a competitive market advantage and long-term stability Business intelligence solutions use data warehousing and data mining techniques to analyse huge information for extraction of strategic data. National Informatics Centre is providing services in the area of business intelligence solution to the government. The vital objective of Business Intelligence (BI) is to provide citizens with information along with analytical facilities so as to extract knowledge from the vast information base to enables them to make better decisions. The Business Intelligence system can help us to get the extracted information from vast government data through an integrated, centrally managed, and trusted data sources. Business Intelligence provides with the reporting and analysis tools and technologies to capture both structured and unstructured information. . Keeping the Scalability of mahatma Gandhi national employment guarantee act in mind, it is the scheme of huge data, funds, people, places and transactions and sometimes non availability of an analysed multidimensional extracted piece of information costs an organisation or a any business process a lot. Business intelligence is now a days used by organisations worldwide to device their strategies, future plans, and new enterprise systems.

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Overview Of Information Technology Enabled... IV. CONCLUSION

Information technology enabled solutions are helping government process across India to operate the way they are supposed to operate in terms of transparency efficiency and effectiveness .We have very few schemes in India where we have resources but we are lacking it terms of improper planning or execution. It is an evident fact that Mahatma Gandhi national employment guarantee act is a scheme primarily targeted for rural India which forms the bigger part of India therefore making necessary for an project to be transparent, effective, timely and efficient in execution. We have come to there have been enormous facts of misappropriation in the execution in the state of Jammu and Kashmir therefore making it an most eligible process of government where the power of information technology enabled solutions could have been utilised up to the optimal level.

REFERENCES.
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx http://www.ndtv.com/topic/mgnrega http://www.nrega.nic.in/complaints/Helplinecomp/Jammu%20Kashmir.xls http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/Data/State_brief_14.pdf http://jammu.greaterkashmir.com/news/2013/Mar/26/centre-slams-jk-over-poor-nrega-implementation20.asp http://164.100.72.25/netnrega/state_html/social_auditNT.aspx?v_code=14&v_name=JAMMU+AND+K ASHMIR&fin_year=2011-2012&page=S&Digest=vve4kVqMV5719pzm0kxaTA http://nrega.nic.in/circular/minutes_of_LB_meeting_01122011.pdf http://rural.nic.in/sites/national-level-monitors.asp http://www.ruralmonitor.in/nlm.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/ERP.html http://www.eresourceerp.com/reason-for-ERP-market-growth-in-india.html http://www.backbonemag.com/Backblog/top-10-predictions-for-the-global-erp-industry-in-2013.aspx http://www.marketresearch.com/Netscribes-India-Pvt-Ltd-v3676/ERP-India-6576144/ http://webs.twsu.edu/whitman/papers/ijii99muthu.pdf

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