NIC says :: ‘We influence lives of millions of Indians’ –
for WHAT ???
CORRUPTION in INDIA ???
NIC has joined hands with NISG, eGov Secretary, eGov Jt. Secretary, Addl. eGovernance Secretary to spread CORRUPTION in eGovernance of INDIA.
By T AshishThursday, 21 April , 2005, 12:54
National Informatics Centre (NIC), an organisation of the Department of Information Technology (DIT) under the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT), is all set to go for an “e-procurement system” for handling tenders for goods, services and engineering contracts.
Being a premier organisation in the field of informatics services and IT applications, NIC has been instrumental in steering ICT applications in government departments at central and states, improving decentralised planning and management. NIC has already established a nationwide ICT network � NICNET known as the Government Network � with gateway nodes at all central government departments, covering all 602 district collectorates for IT services.
The driving force behind the NIC is none other than Dr N Vijayaditya, Director-General, who has recently been honoured with the Skoch Challenger-2005 Award for ICT Man of the Year by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, for his contribution and exemplary efforts made in various areas including e-governance and ICT applications. Excerpts from an interview:
NIC has been instrumental in steering ICT applications in the government. What are its objectives?
Since its inception in 1977, NIC has been instrumental in steering ICT applications in the government at Central and State level. Following the directions from the Prime Minister’s Office, the organisation expanded its nationwide ICT network to North East and Jammu & Kashmir, increasing its network to all districts in the country.
The long-term objective of the NIC, as approved by the Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance and the Electronics Commission, is to establish the feasibility of a system for the provision of detailed information to government ministries and agencies to assist them in making decisions relating to the country�s economic and social development planning and program implementation. Missed last week’s Thursday Interview? Click here
The NIC was set up with the objective to promote economic, social scientific and technological activities, and also for macro-economic adjustment program of the Government, through the applications of IT.
Can you share some of NIC�s national project and state-level projects?
NIC has conceptualised, developed and implemented a very large number of projects for various central and state government ministries, department and organisations.
Many of these projects are continuing projects being carried out by various divisions of NIC across the country, touching upon all spheres of e-governance and thereby influencing the lives of millions of citizens of India.
Some prestigious projects include: Agricultural Marketing Information Network (AgmarkNet), Central Passport System (CPS), Community Information Centres (CICs), Computerised Rural Information System Project (CRISP), Court Information System (COURTIS), Department of Agriculture Network (DACNET), Land Records Information System, Land Records Information System (LRIS), Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (PGRAMS). The NIC has undertaken several e-government projects, including online secretariat in Karnataka.
What are your focus areas for this year?
NIC is focusing on a few areas, including e-procurement, GIS, and security. After initial process, the organisation has finalised an e-procurement solution from C1 India. We will soon deploy the solution in our existing system. We are also giving equal importance to GIS and security.
You have been selected for the ICT Man of the Year Award. Can you share your views on this?
I am happy to receive the award from Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. Skoch is a multinational Strategy and Management Consultancy Company working towards ICT led competitive advantage India possesses across segments.
Every year, Skoch confers the Challenger Awards to people, projects, organisations & technologies that went the extra mile and made an impact in India’s ICT led competitive advantage.
The award recognises and acknowledges excellence and exemplary efforts made by individuals and organisations for their contribution in key areas such as e-governance, BFSI, academic excellence, ICT penetration, affordable computing & innovation.
Every year hundreds of �best-in-class� contenders compete for recognition at the Challenger Awards.
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WHAT ACTIONS NIC has taken in DGS&D – C1 eProcurement ?
What role NIC has played in the eProcurement
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Re: [eGovINDIA] DGS&D – C1 eProcurement contracts under investigation /
[eGovINDIA] DGS&D – C1 eProcurement contracts under investigation
“E. Verwalten” <everwalten@gmail.com> wrote:
Indian Express Investigation 30th March 2008
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/290086.html
Indian Express Investigation 8th April 2008
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/293851.html
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Pls read this artlicle about C1 india chief Mr.Suresh Nanda!!!!
http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/20010316/ian16051.html
Nanda is the name of the game
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The following article was published in the below mentioned URL, please
go through the same.
http://www.business-standard.com/search/storypage_new.php?leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1&lselect=1&autono=185604
More interesting articles......!!!!
... According to Jain, Suresh Nanda of the Crown Corporation paid them
Rs.one crore
for the help in getting the order of 250 Armored Recovery Vehicles for
a ...
www.ganashakti.com/old/2001/010326/nation1.htm
...........As soon as he became the defence minister, after six or
seven months� TEHELKA:
Okay. RK JAIN: Suresh Nanda approached me for armoured recovery
vehicle. ...
www.tehelka.com/home/20041009/operation/investigation21.htm
... NEW DELHI, March 10: A city court today granted two weeks to police
to file reply
to an application of Suresh Nanda, father of the main accused Sanjeev
Nanda ...
www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19990311/ige11025.html
... The chargesheet says that Sanjiv Nanda, son of arms dealer Suresh
Nanda was accompanied by Manik Kapoor when the former's BMW car killed
six persons including ...
www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19990409/ige09182.html
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eProcurement Case Background
1. October 2000
Information Technology Act 2000 was passed. Use of 128 Bit SSL & Digital
Certificate made mandatory for ecommerce activities. As per IT ACT 2000 for
any electronic document to be legally valid, it should be digitally signed by
Digital Certificate issued by any Liscensed Certifyign Agency (CA) approve by
Controller of Certifying Agency (CCA).
2. September 2001
Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) Core implementation committee was
formed to implement eProcurement and PWC (Price water house coopers was
appointed as consultant). They were paid Rs. 1.75 Cr for 5 projects, approx Rs. 35Lakh/Project as consultancy fee. Ref. pwc hired as consultant.pdf.
3. Feb 2002
CCA granted license to Safescrypt on 5th February, 2002, India’s first CA.
SAFESCRYPT Ltd, a Satyam Infoway company affiliated with VeriSign Inc,
issued the country’s first digital signature certificate to the Minister for
Communications and IT & Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Pramod Mahajan, at an
official ceremony here on Wednesday.
SafeScrypt is the first Indian company to get a certifying authority licence for
digital signature from the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA). The
company received this licence earlier this week.
4. In Feb 2002,
Department of Public Relation, Madhya Pradesh floated a tender for eTendering,
eProcurement which categorically specified that IT ACT 2000 needs to be
complied and Digital Certificate/SSL/PKI should be used to ensure secrecy of
price bid. No MNC consultant appointed to draft tender document. 5 Companies
participate in the same including Applitech Tenercity.com I Pvt. Ltd (Tendercity),
NexTenders, ITI/Antares, CNet, etc.
5. May 2002
Sometime in May 2002, GoAP floated a Tender for eProcurement software more
specifically eTendering and Reverse Auction engine by Govt. of AP. No mention
of PKI/SSL/Digital Certificate � what was Rs. 35 Lakh paid to then to PWC?
6. Mid 2002
Out of many bidders who had submitted the tender a consortium comprising of
C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Microsoft & Antares System Ltd & Compaq had submitted the
bid. Other bidders included companies like Wipro and consortium of Boradvision
and TCS. Consortium head by C1 India Pvt. Ltd (C1) won the tender. GoAP
approves rate of Rs.4500/Tender (GoAP Pays) & 0.24% of the Tender Value
(winning bidder pays to C1 India Directly)
7. In June 2002,
GoAP enters into a secret agreement with C1 India to do a pilot project and not
the consortium which had won the contract? WHY?
8. On 29 th Jan 2003,
www.eprocurement.gov.in launched without compliance to IT ACT 2000, Digital
Certificate, PKI. GoAP gives lame excuse that since Digital Certificates are not
available, hence the same was not integrated in spite of the fact that first Digital
Certificate was issued to Shri. Promod Mahajan as early as Feb 2002.
What started as a Pilot Project for nine months, gets extended for another 9
month unilaterally in spite of the fact that system did not comply to IT ACT
2000.
9. Jan 2003
C1 India gets a 128 bit SSL Certificate from Verisign for
www.eprocurement.gov.in domain? WHY?
1.) .gov.in domain belongs to only government organizations, how come the same was issued to a private company.
2.) 128 Bit SSL was procured from a US Company, whereas IT Act mandates that it should be procured only from liscensed CA. Why was the same not procured from TCS, Safescrypt.
3.) TCS, Safescrypt would have never issued a 128 Bit SSL certificate to C1 India Pvt. Ltd, as .gov.in domain belongs to only Govt. departments. A US company issued the same without any verification, because they were interested in dollars.
10. March 2003
PWD, Chhattisgarh floats a tender for eTendering with Department of Public
Relations, Madhya Pradesh specifications.
Tendercity, C1 India, Wipro, Antares/ITI, Nex Tener & other 3 companies
participated in the tender. Tender gets awarded to NexTender, a mumbai based
company in spite of Tendercity Being the lowest Bidder.
11. April 2003
C1 quotes to PWD, Chhattisgarh Rs. 1000/Tender as fix service charge
irrespective of Tender Value & No fee to be paid by PWD, Chhattisgarh?
Tendercity shares the same information with GoAP. GoAP calls for a steering
committee and yet no action is taken to revise fee being paid to C1 India i.e.
Rs. 4500/Tender (GoAP pays) & 0.24% of Tender Value (winning bidder pays)
12. July 2003
The first lawsuit under Indian cyber law, Antares Systems Ltd, the Bangalore–
based IT firm, has filed a case against an e-governance project in the Delhi High
Court for alleged infringement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and unfair
competition. The case has been filed against C1 India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of
Nasdaq-listed CommerceOne. The Government of Andhra Pradesh and Principal
Secretary, Department of IT and Communications, AP have been arraigned as
parties.
Antares has urged the Delhi HC that C1 India and the AP Government be
restrained from infringing its copyright in its e-tendering software product
Tenderwizard and from relying upon, in any manner whatsoever, the features of
Tenderwizard, said the company’s Senior Vice-President, Mr R. Kamath.
13. July 2003
India’s First Digitally Singed eTender was enabled by Tendercity for Madhya
Pradesh Poorva Kshetra Vidyut Vitran Company Ltd, Madhya Pradesh Electrictiy
Board, MP (MPPKVVCL, MPSEB,MP). 10 Digital Certificates (TCS) were
issued to contractors across India.
14. December, 2003
Northern Railway floats a Tender for eTendering. C1 India, Wipro/NexTender,
Antares, HCL, Tendercity Participated in the tender. Tender awarded to
HCL/Boradvision Consortium. Rate approved Less than Rs.1500/Tender. GoAP
takes no action and does not revise the service fee it pays to C1 India.
15. Feb 2004
Tendercity writes letter to IT Secretary, GoAP, and Principle Secretary GoAP and bring to their notice that PKI compliance is not there on eprocurement.gov.in and that the eTendering services available at a very competitive rates in open market. No Action taken by the GoAP Officers.
16. Mid 2004
On PWC recommendations, JV option was dropped (JV between eTendering
service provider and Government of AP) and eProcurement services was
continued to be used in ASP model
Why did PWD suggested not to go ahead with JV option? probably because in
case of JV Government of AP would have made a lot of money? Total fee
reimbursed by GoAP & Various Bidder to C1 India in last 3 years is in tune of
Crores of Rupees. If GoAP had procured the software, it would have costed
Rs. 0, because that what C1/PWC quoted to NIC, in December 2004 for
eTendering Software.
17. July 2004
GoAP steering committee meets in October, 2004. Price bid revised to as follows w.e.f. 1 st April 2004 as follows
– GoAP pays nothing � i.e. Rs. 4,500/Tender waived off
– For Tender<50 Cr � each participating bidder pays 0.04% of Tender value or
Rs.10,000/Tender as processing fee, which ever is higher.
– For Tender>50 Cr � each participating bidder pays 0.04% of Tender value or
Rs.25,000/Tender as processing fee, which ever is higher.
– Still the same is very very high compared to open market rates. GoAP Continues with C1 India, when the contract though an illegal contract.
– GoAP accepts non compliance of IT ACT 2002 and yet gives C1 India 6 month
period to make their product PKI enabled, by March 2005. Why, was the project
not scrapped in then and then itself till the PKI compliance was not complete.
18. December 2004
PWC Partners with C1 India for NIC tender for eTendering.
Having played a instrumental role in causing great exchequer loss of GoAP, by
recommending ASP Mode, C1 India reward PWC with partnership for NIC
Tender. C1 ditched PWC (presumably) by quoting Rs.0 as software price to
NIC.
19. 1st April 2005
Digital certificates made mandatory from April 2005. Digital certificate are used
only of Authentication purpose at time of Login. Only price bids are digitally
signed and leaving room for service provider to tamper with technical bids,
document uploaded, etc.
20. Mid 2005
Tendercity alleges of eProcurement scam in one of the reply it filed in Delhi
High Court. The same document is shared with various AP departments, but no
action is taken.
21. 24 thNovember 2005,
Tendercity demonstrate to IT Secretary Shri Narsing Roa, the loopholes and
security defects in www.eprocuremnet.gov.in in person in his chamber. IT
Secretary assures that proper action will be taken against the culprits.
Tendercity gets an invitation from HUDA for demonstration of security loopholes
in the system but the same is postponed by CE after a brief 5 minute meeting.
Reason for postponement not specified. Subsequent meeting doe not take place.
22. 3rdDecember, 2005
Tendercity demonstrates to Principle Secretary & MD APTS the security
loopholes in www.eprocuremnet.gov.in and ideal security features that should be
enabled. Principle Secretary IT&C promise to take the appropriate action.
23. 5th December, 2005
GoAP accepts vide their email dated 5 th December, 2005 that
1.) www.eprocurement.gov.in is property of GoAP
2.) GoAP sees no harm if a 128 Bit SSL Certificate has be procured from USA
instead from a licensed CA as per CCA norms and that too by C1 India. In
layman terms it means a private company owns www.eprocurement.gov.in
3.) GoAP accepts that till December 2005, price bid submitted by 10,000 of
contractors 9800 eTender enabled so far reached the server in readable fashion
without any encryption, but that OK. It’s public money and it can go down the
drain.
4.) GoAP accepts that only C1 India can access the Price bid of contractors, as
they are the system administrator and super Admin of the website. Since no
government office has access to database, and generally they are corrupt the
system is secure. As per GoAP, private company which has been given the
custody of Rs.32,000 Cr. worth of eTender price bid security are trustworthy and
walking gods.
5.) GoAP states that C1 India does not access the readable price bid of all
contractors that is there in Database, and which can be accessed by C1 India
anytime from anywhere. GoAP goes on record that since not a single case of
tampering has been raised, there is nothing wrong with present system and they
have full faith on C1 India. They have full faith on PWC, so what if they partner
with C1 India for other government departments.
6.) GoAP does not care about Antares software being illegally used, since the
matter is sub-judice.
7.) GoAP has accepted that the system was so insecure, that had they told the
contactors and public at large about the security loopholes, no contractor would
have submitted the bid and hence all contractors, public, government officers
were kept in dark about the security loophole.
8.) GoAP has accepted that Detached Signature and Server Side encryption are
international practice as per their MNC consultant PWC, so what if C1 India get
the privilege to access the price bid of each and every contractors.
24. 10 th December, 2005
To cover things up, IT Secretary gives a clean chit to Service provider � C1 India
by means of issuing unsigned certificate making a claim that there is nothing
wrong with the system.
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Please read this article.
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LOOK at this what NIC has done !!!!!
NIC nexus with C1 INDIA, PWC,
1. In the prequalification criteria Page no.2, item no 2 (VI) NIC said that �the vendor or the prime bidder in the case of consortium should be CMM level 4 or ISO 9000-3 certified�. (Please note that there is no certification called ISO 9000-3 in this world and it is only the guidelines for software companies. Through this ITI which has deployed more than 20 eProcurement projects across the country has been prevented from participating in the tender) .
2. Apparently ITI Limited a PSU under MCIT has made a representation to NIC stating that the prequalification criteria is wrong and ITI should be allowed to participate in the tender which has been refused by NIC orally.
3. Further STQC experts also informed that the prequalification criteria is wrong.
4. Without listening to the STQC and ITI, NIC went ahead and executed the tender for eProcurement.
5. Interestingly (??) the consortium of PWC and C1 bagged the order form NIC.
6. How beautiful and professional this entire transaction is:
– The PWC who is the consultant to GOAP is the Prime bidder of Consortium.
– The C1 which bagged the project from GOAP through the recommendations of PWC is the consortium partner.
– Though the pre-qulaification criteria was wrong and ITI as well as STQC have submitted the note to this effect, NIC went ahead and awarded the tender to PWC & C1 consortium.
– Now the NIC along with PWC and C1 can go to any state/central/ PSU and deploy eProcurement project to enhance transparency (??). however there is no transparency in the NIC’s Procement itself?
Now my questions are:
Can NIC Put a wrong Qualification criteria to prevent their own sister concern ITI Limited and do not respond to the representation made by ITI Limited?</ SPAN> Can a consultant (PWC) become the supplier (PWC & C1 consortium)? When a consultant (PWC) recommends some company (C1 ) for the award (in GOAP), can the consultant (PWC) join with the same company (PWC) for another project (NIC) as supplier. Interstingly PWC (Consultant of GOAP project) is also a deployment partner of the C1 (Visit http:// www.c1india. com/partners/ partners. html#)
5. How to put an end to such nonsenses ?
6. Whether NIC is obligated to reply ITI letter or not? NIC can neglet the letter of ITI just like that? Is the legal battle is only the remedy? Is there any authority who can parade these officials on open road puting a necklace of “corrupt officer”?
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eGovernance in India 