The Panchayati Raj department of the government of Orissa has embarked on a networking initiative to connect 314 blocks and 30 district rural development agencies in the entire state by deploying Oracle solutions.
Speaking to CXOtoday, Mathew Thomas, senior sales manager, Oracle India, said, "To build a integrated network architecture the government of Orissa plans to use Oracle 9i at the backend. The OS at the client/server level for the entire block would be Windows. There would be two PCs at each block and we plan to add two more PCs eventually."
The three-tiered Web infrastructure would have an application server at the central level and a browser based front end at the block level. A standard PC would be used at the block level, while two dual CPU servers would be deployed at the central location.
The infrastructure will be built with the help of end-user Panchayat accounting and monitoring software (financial accounting) and payroll applications built by Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar and Orissa Computer Application Centre of the IT Directorate of Government of Orissa respectively.
Dr. Damodar Rout, minister in charge of Panchayati Raj and culture in Orissa said, "We realized that we need a robust IT infrastructure to effectively manage the over 10 major and 58 minor schemes, being run by the Panchayati Raj department across Orissa. Therefore we have chosen a globally accepted technology platform - Oracle."
"This is the first step toward a citizen-centric integrated IT infrastructure that will help our citizens, residing in rural areas of Orissa, interface better with the Government," Dr Rout added.
This integrated environment will help them interface on a real-time basis with the department's employees at the block and gram panchayat level, as well as with all citizens.
The Panchayati Raj Department of Orissa hopes to achieve better utilization of funds, greater financial transparency and accountability and better management of social welfare schemes through the integrated IT infrastructure.
When queried about standardizing performance metrics throughout the state, Thomas responded, "The financial accounting and payroll systems are centralized applications that use Oracle database and application server and will be accessed using a browser. The data inputs are standard and hence standardization is achieved."
According to Thomas, a VSAT network currently connects 314 blocks and 30 district rural development agencies in the state. "The government of Orissa plans to implement the project in a phased manner covering all the 6234 gram panchayats in the state over time," added Thomas.
