Infosys shows interest in education sector e-governance project

As many as 16 major software development companies, including Infosys, have come forward to carry out a comprehensive e-governance project mooted by Kerala higher education department for improving the service delivery and transparency in governance of universities, collegiate education department and technical education department in the state. The e-governance initiative has been mooted with an aim to provide faster delivery of services to all stakeholders in higher education sector. Among other features, the e-governance project for universities also envisages an exclusive student portal, multiple channels to access services from university, simplified process for submitting various applications and tracking the same, e-payment facility for remitting various fees, simplified process for accessing general services such as requests for certificates, verifications, etc., simplified process for registering grievances against university services and simplified access for viewing academic data. According to sources in higher education department, the government plans to finalise the software development agency for the e-governance programme before December-end. “A sum of Rs 20 crore has been set aside in the state plan fund for e-governance initiatives to be carried out in five universities in the state. The higher education department would be the nodal agency to select a firm competent for establishing the e-governance system. While the e-governance platform would be the same for all universities, there will be provisions for custom-made changes as per the requirement of each university,” higher education department additional secretary S Ajikumaran said. While the money for development of e-governance platform for the universities would be met from the plan fund, the department of collegiate education and technical education would get separate funding from the state government for establishing the e-governance system. A pre-bid meeting of software firms interested to participate in establishing the e-governance platform was held here on Monday. Apart from the five universities — Kerala University, Mahatma Gandhi University, Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat), Calicut University and Kannur University — 41 government colleges in the state would also benefit from the proposed network of e-governance platform. Since many universities and colleges have already established some e-governance initiatives on their own, the comprehensive e-governance solution would convert all such systems in place into common modules and integrate existing data and solutions with the new system being rolled out. Thiruvananthapuram: As many as 16 major software development companies, includingInfosys has come forward to carry out a comprehensive e-governance project mooted by Kerala Higher Education department for improving the service delivery and transparency of governance in universities, collegiate education department and technical education department in the state. The e-governance initiative has been mooted with an aim to provide faster delivery of services to all stake holders in higher education sector. Among other features, the e-governance project for universities also envisages an exclusive student portal, multiple channels to access services from University, simplified process for submitting various applications and tracking of the same, e-Payment facility for remitting various fees, simplified process for accessing general services such as requests for certificates, verifications, etc., simplified process for registering grievances against University services and simplified access to view academic data. According to sources in higher education department, the government plans to finalise the software development agency for the e-governance programme before the end of December, 2013. Rs 20 crore has been set aside in the state plan fund for e-governance initiatives to be carried out in five universities in the state. The higher education department would work as a nodal agency for selection of a firm competent for establishing the e-governance system. While the e-governance platform would be the same for all universities, there will be provisions for custom made changes as per the requirement of each university”, Higher education department additional secretary S Ajikumaran said. Source: Education News