Improving Government Services Through IT and Automation

Governments can transform citizen experiences through robust IT systems and strict enforcement of laws.

### Transforming Government Services Through IT: A Case Study in Telangana
* 🏛 Many citizens dread interactions with government departments, fearing **poor service, corruption, and inefficiency**, as highlighted by the experiences of past leaders who noted that **only ten percent of allocated resources reach intended beneficiaries**.
* 💻 However, there is hope for improvement through the implementation of **IT-based systems and strong political will**, as evidenced by the author's experience as **Commissioner of Civil Supplies in Telangana**.
* 🚜 The introduction of an online procurement management system allowed for the **seamless transfer of ₹11,000 crore to 16.5 lakh farmers within three days**, eliminating the long wait for payments.
* 🚚 Command control centers and GPS technology were employed to monitor the transportation of essential commodities, effectively **stopping diversion and ensuring that goods reached their intended destinations**.
* 📦 The installation of **1,750 CCTV cameras** in godowns provided real-time surveillance, which **significantly reduced corruption and diversions** in storage facilities.
* 📱 A biometric system at fair price shops ensured that only eligible beneficiaries received their rations, **saving approximately ₹800 crores annually** in Telangana alone.
* 🤝 Engagement with stakeholders, including rice millers and dealers, was crucial in enforcing rules and improving compliance, demonstrating that **collaboration can lead to positive outcomes**.
* 🌐 The effective use of IT systems, such as Aadhaar, is **essential for delivering public services in India**, and citizens must advocate for these changes to ensure **accountability and efficiency in governance**.

[Music] What is it that crosses your mind if you have an interaction coming up with the government department in the next few days? Just imagine you have to visit an RTA office to get your driving license. Now let us be frank, will they be polite to me? Will I have to bribe someone to get the work done? Will I have to get someone's recommendation to get the work done? Well, you're justified because that has been the experience of most of us who have interacted with government. Even ex-leaders, half of this country, have said that barely ten percent of the resources allocated actually reaches the group for which they are meant. There have been individual cases of excellence, innovation, brilliance, but sadly on average, the experience of a citizen interacting with the government has not been too satisfactory. Now is there no hope? Can we not improve? Do we take this as a fait? Well, it is my contention that there is definitely hope, and there can be hope for a lot of improvement if there is strong political and administrative will to use IT-based

systems and automation backed by strong and resilient enforcement of the rules and laws in place. Then governments can deliver effectively and efficiently and in a citizen-friendly manner. One and a half years ago, I was posted as the Commissioner of civil supplies by the government of Telangana. It was the first time in history in this country that a police officer was being asked to head a very important administrative department. Like many of you, I also thought this department deals with ration cards, shops, and the public distribution system. But when I reported there, I realized that it deals with an entire gamut of activity, which starts right from the time the farmers bring the paddy to the paddy purchase centers. From there on, the corporation buys this paddy through I KP groups. The paddy is transported to the millers who mill it, and the rice is then transported thereafter to the buffer godowns, to the corporation godowns, and then to the fair price shops, and finally, it is distributed amongst the needy beneficiaries. What else did I see there?

a twelve thousand crore corporation having a debt of over seven thousand crore, and banks have already refused to give further loans to conduct the daily operations. The employees of the department looked demotivated and in disarray. The stakeholders like rice millers, kerosene dealers, fresh-off-air pressure of dealers, they're all in a combative mood, not ready to pay the large number of dues to do to the corporation. Well, in my 25 years in the police department, I've always believed in the use of IT-based systems to deliver better policing services to the public. Right from the time I was a DCP in central zone where we set up CCTV is all around Hussain Sagar Lake to prevent suicides and set up the lake policing system through the time I was in traffic when we used each other on system to replace the handwritten Chalon books, introduced drunk driving, and used modern gadgetry for enhanced and better enforcement to the time in cyber Abad where we introduced passport verification within three days through a

totally online system set up CCTV's all around in the thousands of numbers on the roads of cyber Abad to enhance public safety and also introduced she apps, she shuttles, and she cabs to enhance women's safety. So, I thought, why don't we use this IT-based systems to deliver results in a department like civil supplies? So, here we started with the first step itself, the farmers bringing the paddy to the paddy purchase centers. Now, there were complaints that the farmers never received their minimum support price, which has been declared by the government in full. There were traders, millers, and officers who took their cut and ensured that the full amount never reached them. So, we thought, why don't we develop something to alleviate their misery? The online procurement managed system was developed, which made the entire process online. Tabs were issued to the 3,000 plus paddy purchase centers, which are run by women self-help groups and agriculture cooperative societies. The entire process, as you can see, was made

online right from the time there were patties brought. Farmers' details are registered, and the payment process is made through the corporation to the head office, and then to the central bank, and then to the district manager, and then straight into the farmers' accounts. You will not believe that in three seasons of Karif and Rabi last year and Korea this year, eleven thousand crore rupees have been transferred into the accounts of 16.5 lakh farmers straight into their accounts within three days. There's no need to suffer for thirty to sixty days waiting for the cheques to reach them. Now we come to the second part of the entire supply chain, which we've just discussed. It involves transportation and storage. They are both intertwined in terms of malpractices. There were complaints that the lorry loads of rice, which was actually meant for the public distribution system, were being taken away. The lorries were going right to Kakinada and Vizag ports and Mumbai port or to other states for this rice to be sold. It is actually meant for

the poor people here. So, we said there is technology available. We opened command control centers in the head office and each of the 31 districts. GPS is a beautiful technology, Global Positioning Systems. This gives the vehicle track history for the previous one year. We can easily track where they Laurie moved, when it started, when it stopped, and why, why it stopped also can be queried. 18,000 routes which were used by these trucks to apply the essential commodities to the fair price shops where I didn't fight. They were geo-fenced, and any truck touching this geo fence would raise three alerts at three levels, and there was no way any truck driver or any owner could divert these commodities anymore. Then this, you have the storage godowns. They had become dens of corruption and diversions. The essential commodities would not even be unloaded because everyone knew how much was being left every month. The truck's wrong entries would be made, and the trucks would just move away again to the ports and to other states. So, we said there are CCTVs available just as we did in the police.

We have 171 godowns which are prone to these activities. We installed about seventeen hundred and fifty cameras in them, and now the godown activity is watched live. Every part of the godown is covered. They are watched live in the head office 24 by 7 at nighttime and with a 2-megapixel clarity. We call the transporters, the godown owners, and our officers and told them, This is how you're being watched. Please be careful. And believe me, things stopped. There are no more diversions now. Then we come to the most important part where the government actually comes into interaction with the people. 75% of the population is on the list of beneficiaries in the Telangana state. In the country, also the figures are almost like this. It's about 70 percent of the total country's population. That means was 70 to 80 crore beneficiaries on the PDS system in the country itself. Now if fair price shops are also another area of concern, imagine a dealer having about hundred

beneficiaries on his list. It has been our experience that barely 80 to 85 percent of the beneficiaries actually come to the region shop every month to take their essential commodities. The remaining 15 to 20 percent are either non-existent because they are bogus and fake or they are not interested. But the dealer never declared even a single kg of these commodities as a closing balance. They would first the records. He could not have done it without help from the department, and they would say nothing is left at the end of the month. So, the way out for this was to install a pause machine where every single beneficiary had to affect his biometric on the support machine. That biometric or iris had to be authenticated by the other servers in Hyderabad and in Delhi, and only then the region could be shot to them. So, the fake guys could not do it. You will not believe over the last one year. This has been the toughest IT project this department has executed. The IT team guys spread out and fanned out into the remotest of corners of the

Telangana state into forest areas into Hamlet's Hill areas trying to fix these machines and you know the resistance from everyone there trying to get signals from those remote areas to Hyderabad so that the data is transferred finally with all the determination that we had we have finally achieved the task and 17,000 fair pressure offs now are totally online even from the remotest of areas we are getting this biometric confirmations and the results are astounding too we are saving 60 to 65 crore rupees every month this means 800 plus crores savings every year in a small state like Telangana just imagine what the figures can be for the entire country isn't it amazing how much of the funds are being diverted next we come to a very important aspect which we did we took up to an enforce and empower the beneficiary we introduced portability portability is a concept where the beneficiary can draw his eration anywhere in the state he need not be restricted to a small hamlet with to

which he belongs in Haboob Nagar district, and only he can draw a ration there. He can come to Hyderabad. Migrant labor comes here in search of work, but they miss out on their monthly rations. They can’t afford to do it, but they have to because they can’t go back. It costs more to go back now. Wherever they are working in Hyderabad, they just walk into a shop. This app helps them locate the shops all around him, wherever he is staying in a 10-kilometer radius. Which shop is open, which one is closed. The green ones are the open shops, which are opened right now. It is live and also shows the balances in the shops, the stocks available. He can just walk in, put his biometric or the iris, and there he draws his ration and goes away. I can't think of a better welfare activity for the poor people than we use. I feel WhatsApp is a magic app, not when you use it and spoil your sleep and trouble your parents, but

when you when we use it for the organisation and I have used it so much in the police and in this department too. They used to be a lot of apps between the head office and their field units. No one would communicate with each other, but WhatsApp has breached those gaps. All the walls are broken. Everyone works, the corporation, the department, and the field units work as one unit. Problems are solved on WhatsApp. There's no need for official communication, Xeroxes and faxes and all those which Norman believes in. WhatsApp also was offered, this number was offered to the public, and we have, we get thousands of complaints of videos, photographs of relationships not being opened or something being smuggled, LPG cylinders being smuggled and things like that. So, it has created a lot of deterrence. So, along with IT, I always, always believe that IT alone cannot bring us the results. It has to be backed by enforcement. As I said, we need stricter enforcement of the laws if we need the results. So, we indulged and engaged with our stakeholders most

important are the rice millers. These guys take paddy from us millet and used to sell it in the open market without returning the rice to us within the two months in which they're supposed to, and no one is supposed to ask them. That is the biggest surprise. I leave it to you to imagine why we shouldn't ask them. They are a very powerful lobby. And then we straightened out the rules. We told them that honest business has to be done. You do your bit, we do our bit, you get your dues, and we get back our dues. So, the rules are clear, and in the three seasons, they have fallen in line. Similarly, we engage with dealers of all kinds: LPG, kerosene, and fair price shop, the transporters, and the godown owners, and everyone. There is their goodness in everyone. We appeal to them, try to tell them that you need to improve your reputation. A dealer walking in a village always evokes thoughts that a thief is walking. So, I said, What is the use, or how will your children go to school, and you are

called the children of thieves, so they have rectified, and you will not also believe that such steps finally have given us so much of savings in and recoveries in one and a half years. If this is what we can do in a state like Telangana, which is a small state compared to the bigger ones, you can imagine this is nothing but your tax money. Your parents would have paid it. I pay so much of tax. Everyone here sitting pays tax. There's nothing but the tax money which we are paying. So won't it enrage us? Yes, it does, and there is a solution for this. In conclusion, I would like to say that to govern such a large country like India with 1.3 billion people, there has to be effective use of large-based IT systems like Aadhaar and so on. The case of Aadhaar is going on in the Supreme Court on the issue of privacy, but I hope we get a positive result. The only way essential public services like education and health, which has been denied after 70 years of Independence to

A large section of society can be delivered through IT-based systems, but the pressure for this has to come from the people because we are a democracy, and that final pressure has to come from enlightened people like you. Thank you. [Applause]

Public administration put through effective leadership & technology | CV Anand | TEDxVNRVJIET

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TEDx Talks

Improving Government Efficiency through IT and Automation

Interactions with government departments are often perceived as unsatisfactory, with issues like bribery and lack of resources reaching the intended beneficiaries.

The speaker, a police officer appointed as the Commissioner of civil supplies in Telangana, highlights the department's struggles with debt and demotivated employees.

The speaker advocates for using IT-based systems and automation, along with strong enforcement of rules, to improve government service delivery and create a more citizen-friendly experience.

IT-Based System for Civil Supplies Reform

An extensive online system was established in Cyber Abad, using technology to enhance public safety and women's security.

The online procurement managed system for paddy purchase centers was implemented, resulting in the swift transfer of ₹11,000 crore to 16.

5 lakh farmers' accounts within three days.

GPS tracking and geo-fencing were used to monitor truck routes for essential commodities, while CCTV surveillance was introduced in storage godowns to combat corruption and diversion of goods.

Surveillance and IT Solutions in Telangana's PDS System

Telangana has installed 1,750 cameras in 171 godowns, providing 24/7 live monitoring and significantly reducing diversion activities.

The state's Public Distribution System (PDS) aims to benefit 70-75% of the population, with biometric authentication now implemented to eliminate fake beneficiaries.

The IT project has successfully brought 17,000 fair price shops online, resulting in monthly savings of 60-65 crore rupees and empowering beneficiaries with the portability to draw their rations from anywhere in the state.

Innovative Ration Distribution and Welfare Support

The app helps migrant laborers in Hyderabad locate open shops for their monthly rations within a 10-kilometer radius, providing live updates on stock availability.

WhatsApp has been instrumental in breaking communication barriers between the head office and field units, facilitating problem-solving and reporting of issues.

The initiative has also engaged with stakeholders, such as rice millers and dealers, to enforce honest business practices and improve the reputation of service providers.

The Impact of Tax Money and IT Systems in Governance

The speaker highlights the significant savings and recoveries achieved in Telangana by rectifying issues related to tax money.

They emphasize the importance of effective use of IT systems, like Aadhaar, in governing a large country like India.

The speaker calls for pressure from the people to ensure the delivery of essential public services through these systems.