Post on 11-Feb-2018
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Improving Service DeliveryThrough The Use of Digital
Technologies: A Case Study ofKarnataka Moile !ne
Abstract
Moile technology has emerged as a key driver throughout information
technology" The use of moile technology provides opportunities for
innovation# agility and $e%iility in the delivery of government services" It
provides access in areas &here the infrastructure re'uired for Internet or
&ired phone lines is not a viale option" Such an opportunity has een aly
utili(ed y government of Karnataka in coming out &ith oth a
comprehensive frame&ork on Moile )overnance and its implementation as
uni*ed moile governance platform" This study endeavors to look at the
normative design of a moile governance initiative that can &ork across
countries and also to estalish &ith the help of data on Moile !ne ho&
moile technology can transform government service delivery"
1. Introduction
Karnataka has een a pioneer in the *eld of e+governance in India" Its many
pro,ects such as e+procurement# -uman .esource Management System#
/hoomi# commercial ta% applications# and setting up of citi(ens service
centres like /angalore!ne and 0emmadi had )overnment have madegovernment services more accessile to a common man" Karnataka has
aout 1222 Citi(ens Service Centers for a population 34 million" The internet
penetration on personal computers and desktops is ,ust 12 percent &hereas
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Mandate for inclusive governance
-igh moile penetration
Increasing availailty of lo& cost smart phones
Demand from citi(ens for e5cient service+delivery
mechanisms
-igh maturity of e+governance and high e+readiness
the numer of moile suscriers is 66 million in Karnataka1" Therefore# there
is large unmet demand for prompt and e7cient delivery of government
services and a need to look for ne& paradigm in pulic service delivery
through the use of &ireless technology" It is in this ackground that the
government of Karnataka came out &ith Uni*ed Moile )overnance 8latform
called Moile!ne that o5ers more than 4222 services in various categories
such as )overnment to Citi(ens9/usiness9.esidents9mployees
;)
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A look at the numer of yearly transaction on the &e+portal of
/angalore!ne sho&s 4?#222 transactions reached only at the end of third
year" Moile!ne # on the other hand# reached 62#222 numer of transactions
in the *rst 116 days of its operation"
Legal and Institutional Framework
The very *rst step the government of Karnataka took to institutionali(e the
Moile )overnance Delivery 8latform &as to take out a )overnment !rder
;)!= &herein use of Uni*ed Moile Service Delivery 8latformhas een made
mandatory
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Steering Committee is headed y the second highest civil servant of the
state and has een instrumental in co%ing and ca,oling 42 departments to
adopt the 8latform for moile enalement of their services" The %ecutive
Committee looks after day to day implementation of the pro,ect" @urther#
provisions are made for regular trainings of the department personnel and
guidelines are laid do&n for standardi(ation of Application 8rogramming
Interface ;A8I="
Mobile Governance Framework and Features of Mobile ne
The @rame&ork for Moile !ne is designed to e principle+driven &herein *ve
asic principles such as Interoperaility# Security# !penness# @le%iility and
Scalaility inform the functional re'uirements to create a coherent moile
governance frame&ork"The architecture provides a long+term moile service
delivery platform &ith a decentrali(ed frame&ork# adding modules on
demand through Soft&are as a Service ;SaaS= Model"
1. Intero!erabilit"
Interoperaility is uilt into the frame&ork y ensuring there is functional
coherence et&een manual# &e# and &ireless systems to provide integrated
delivery of services across all the channels" The limitations of each of these
channels are also evaluated to ensure that there is no &rongful commitment
on the re'uest or delivery of services to the citi(ens and a clear access to
services are provided" Interoperaility is further addressed in terms of B
a= 0et&ork Interoperaility is ensured y designing a platform that is oth
telecom operator and service technology ;)SM# CDMA and 8ST0=agnostic"
= -andset and User Interface Interoperaility makes the platform
accessile across all operating systems like android# &indo&s# apple
etc across all rands of moiles and users interfaces such as &e and
moile"
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Figure #: Arc$itecture of Mobilene
c= Systems Interoperaility ensures that the users have integrated and
uniform e%perience in service access and delivery despite accessing
disparate information and applications of the various departments" The
ackend processing of re'uired information9service y connecting to
various departments9agencies is facilitated &ithout the users having to
individually contact di5erent departments for a single service or e
even a&are of this inherent comple%ity"
d= /anking .elationship Interoperaility provides payment solutions
across anks and non anking *nancial companies seamlessly" The
platform provides choice to the customer to choose from any form of
payment mechanisms that are presently availale on moile"
e= Channel Interoperaility makes it possile that a service re'uest made
through one channel like I>. or USSD can e completed through any
other channel of delivery &ithout duplication of re'uest made"
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#. %ecurit"
A comprehensive frame&ork has een prepared for providing for security of
the moile platform# applications and transactions taking place on the
platform" The platform is hosted in Karnataka States IS! certi*ed Data
Center"The platform is hosted in Karnataka State Data &hich is IS! certi*ed
data center" The relevant est practices prevalent in the industry are eing
follo&ed and the security audits are carried out at regular intervals" Moile
Device Management System is integrated &ith the platform to ensure
security of data captured y using the moile platform especially for )
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channels" evel 1 help desk support along &ith self service and remote
access facilities are also provided to the departments"
Features of Mobile ne
E
)%%D
Unstructured
Supplementary Service Data
USSD= provides a menu
driven and session ased
ervices that &ork on all)SM phones"
*+
nteractive >oice .esponses
s a &ay to navigate through
nformation on moile
phones y using voice in
ocal language"
Mobile web
/ro&ser ased moileapplication that can e
accessed through internet
onnectivity on moile
phones"
%mart ,lient
t is a moile application
designed to run on smart
phones and can leverage
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Moile !ne has een designed on 8latform as a Service
Model ;8aaS=" A Single Uni*ed Moile )ate&ay has een
created to cater to moile enalement of services of all
the departments and agencies of government of
Karnataka" It is modular in architecture and follo&s multi+
channel and inclusive approach for ma%imum adoption#
&herein services of departments are made availale
across all the moile channels like Interactive >oice
.ecording ;I>.=# Unstructured Supplementary Service
Data ;USSD=# Short Te%t Messaging ;SMS=# moile &e
and moile applications" The moile application is also
availale on )oogle 8lay Store and Apple Apps Store" A
single numer 131 can e dialed for I>.# USSD and pull
SMS to access the services from any&here in India and
also to do&nload the application" Since the services are
availale across channels anyone &ho has a phone# e it
a asic phone &ith ,ust voice# SMS and USSD facility or a
smart phone &ith ) capailities# can access Moile!ne
services on his moile phone" This uni*ed vision of
moile governance has eliminated the need for residents
to rememer multiple short codes# numers# multiple
moile applicationsand moile+&e addresses to access
)overnment services" All the services of the )overnment
of Karnataka are availale on easy to rememer one
numer9address across channels" It is in this &ay Moile
!ne provides interoperaility across channels and helps
in ridging the digital divide"
@urther# the 8latform is geared to provide all kind of
services on moile like 8ush# 8ull# 8ayment and Data
Capture services" A push service is simple sending of
information on the moile phones of the citi(ens like
?
-enets of )nied
/latform
1" Multiple moile channels+
Moile Fe# Smart client#
I>.# USSD# 8ush and 8ull
SMS
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disaster alerts# &eather information or commodity pricing to the farmer#
tra7c alerts or status of the application"
Figure &: /us$ %ervice
8ull services on the other hand enale citi(ens to access services from an
interactive interface like I>.# USSD# moile &e and moile application" A
fe& e%amples of such services are *nding out the guidance value of land or
property in a particular area# *nding out aout the income refund status or
checking the train 80. status"
Figure ': /ull %ervice
8ayment services allo& payments to e made for delivery of any pulic or
private services like utility ill payments" The 8latform has the aility to
integrate &ith all the availale moile payment modes and at present credit
and deit cards# 0ational 8ayment Corporations IM8S and telecom
operators &allets have een enaled on the 8latform" 8ayment of utility
ills# income ta%# property ta%# e%amination fees# tra7c *nes etc are a fe&
e%amples of payment services"
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Figure 0: /a"ment %ervice
Data Capture y government refers to use of an application on the moile to
gather oth data and deliver services like health &orkers can use moile
applications for antenatal and postnatal services" Data capture y citi(en
include e%amples such as *lling application for passport# application for
9D# Application for scholarship etc
Figure : Data ,a!ture %ervice
Apart from these services# >alue Added Services ;>AS= of third parties is also
provided on the 8latform" Moile!ne# in a very short time# has emerged as a
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largest aggregator of oth government and private services on moile
platform
/ublic 2/rivate /artners$i! and -usiness Model
The platform is developed on pulic+private partnership model &ith IMI
Moile &ith no initial cost to government of Karnataka" The 8rivate 8artner is
responsile for the design# deployment management of the platform along
&ith upgrades# evolution# dimensioning# capacity planning# integration#
telecom service provider relationship management# security and
authentication aspects that are critical for the e7cient performance of the
platform from the technology perspective" Karnataka government# on itspart# provides MS8 &ith secure space in its state data center and rings in
services from the departments for moile enalement"
A uni'ue usiness model has een developed for the pro,ect that lays
emphasis on moile enalement and usage of services" The Managed
Service 8rovider ;MS8= is paid on the asis of numer of ne& services that
have een enaled on the 8latform in a month" The services have een
divided in terms of comple%ity involved in on+oarding them on the 8atforminto 8ull# 8ush# 8ayment and Data Capture categories and for each category
of services# the MS8 had given his *nancial 'uote for enalement " Service
enalement is a onetime payment made to the MS8 on the successful
enalement of services across all the moile channels" The MS8 also gets
paid for the actual usage of channels as per the slas for oth SMS ;numer
of SMS sent= and I>. ;numer of 8.I lines used=" In order to ensure that the
services are &ell maintained on the 8latform# the .@8 further# stipulates that
the MS8 shall e paid 16 percent of the average service enalement cost
after completion of *rst year # as the annual maintenance cost;AMC= for the
services that are live and &orking" In case of >alue Added Services of the
private party# a Transaction /ased /usiness Model has een uilt into the
.@8# &herein ased on the numer of transactions# the proceeds from the
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services are divided et&een the service provider# MS8 and government of
Karnataka" This hyrid usiness model provides $e%iility and sustainaility
to the pro,ect at the same time appropriately hedges the risk of failure for
oth government and MS8" !n the part of government# there is no initial
investment that is re'uired to e made for the pro,ect and also payments
made to the MS8 are ased on actual service enalement and usage of
channel" As for MS8 there is immense commercial opportunity in the pro,ect
in terms of volumes and third party applications" All the payments are made
to the MS8 after taking into consideration compliances &ith Service evel
Agreements ;SAs= that lay emphasis on provision of uninterrupted 'uality of
services ;HoS= to the citi(ens"
/roof of ,once!t and learning
A proof of concept ;8oC= &as conducted efore the preparation of the
.e'uest for 8roposal ;.@8= to test the &orkaility of multimodal uni*ed
moile governance platform" Though the proof of concept &as a short one
due to impending state elections# it provided lots of learning points that &ere
later incorporated in the .@8" The 8oC involved 6 payment services and . and pull SMS= andtelcos &as procured y the state government itself and the integration
part &as left &ith the MS8"III" The opportunities and limitations involved &ith each channel also
came to fore and accordingly an appropriate strategy of
complementing and supplementing the channels &as put in place in
the .@8"I>" The use of credit card as the only mode of payment in the 8oC limited
its scope" In the actual implementation all the availale moilepayments modes &ere sought to e integrated in order to &iden the
reach of the pro,ect" It &as also reali(ed to go for the correspondent
model# in the rural areas# for payment services to provide real ene*t
to the underserved areas"
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>" 0eed for education of customers and evangeli(ing of concept
especially &hen it comes to payment services &as reali(ed and
therefore in the detailed udget proposal for implementation#
considerale part of the udget &as earmarked for a&areness uilding
and advertising">I" The provision for price discovery for )II" @urther# it &as reali(ed during the 8oC that all the push services of a
department can e undled under one A8I and considered as a case of
single on+oarding of a push service">III" Also# the reali(ation that alphanumeric reference numers used in
certain applications like SAKAA &ere not amenale to moile
enalement on I>. channel# led to the guidelines to use only numeric
reference numers &hile uilding any application" Suse'uent to the
8oC# SAKAA reference numers &ere made numeric"
/resent %tatus of Mobile ne
The Moile 8latform &as inaugurated on ?thDecemer
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reak+up of government services into pull# push# payment and data capture
is given elo&"
3"!e of %ervice 6umber of %ervicesGovernment to ,iti7ens 3E
Government to -usiness 6
Government to 4m!lo"ee 3
Government to Government 12
A uni'ue achievement of Moile !ne is the predominant nature of 8ull#
8ayment and Data Capture services" Many of the earlier moile governance
initiatives have een limited to ,ust sending push SMS to the citi(ens &ith no
facility for the citi(ens to access information at their end" In Moile!ne#
ho&ever# the focus is to make ma%imum services availale to citi(ens on
their moile phones &ithout them having to visit government o7ce or citi(en
service center" The follo&ing graph sho&s the division of government
services availale on the platform into pull# push# payment and data+capture"
Figure 8: ,ategori7ation of %ervices
64G
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A stud" of number of visitors on Mobilene
An analysis of total numer of visitors till the end of March sho&s aout E"6million hits on the platform out of &hich around 1"E million are the uni'ue
suscriers" The ratio of repeat visits and uni'ue users is much higher in
case of Smart client application compared to any other channel ecause of
rich user interface and ease in navigating the pages" ven though smart
client has the highest numer of hits# it is I>. follo&ed y USSD that have
the higher proportion of uni'ue users" This phenomenon may e attriuted
to oth of ease of dialing a single numer for accessing services and limited
numer of moile internet9smart phone users in the country" 8ull SMS# on
the other hand# has the least usage and uni'ue user ase mainly ecause of
comple% synta%es that are re'uired to e entered for availing of any
services" @urther# it is interesting to note that though the Moile Fe and
Smart Client have e%actly same look and feel and moile &e is availale
across operating system against smart client availaility only on android and
ios interfaces# it is smart client that has attracted more numer of users" The
reason could e that Smart Client application once do&nloaded resides on
the device and does not re'uire rememering any U. and is faster ecause
of its aility to maintain cache of *rst fe& pages"
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Figure 9:,umulative 6umber of *isits
Smart App I>. USSD FA8 8ull SMS
+
622#222
1#222#222
1#622#222
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/SC!M /FSS/ -SC!M I.CTC //M8
2
6222
12222
16222
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%take$olders /artici!ation
Moile!ne is still in the nascent stage and it &ould e too early to discuss
factors that may lead to its success or failure" Instead &e &ould take up
factors that contriuted to creation of oth a roust moile governance
frame&ork and its successful initial implementation" Stakeholders
participation in the pro,ect# right from the inception stage# helped the pro,ect
in *nding *rm moorings in the politico+socio+economic+technological
landscape prevailing in the state" In order to ascertain technological
solutions availale in the market# a meeting &as organi(ed &ith ma,or moile
technology solution providers" ach Company &as asked to make a presentation
on
Figure 1;: %take$olders involved in Mobilene
the technological solution# pulic+private partnership and usiness model"
/ased on the understanding gained from these presentations# the contours
of technological solution and pulic+private partnership &ere *%ed" Similarly#
departments &ere involved in oth planning and implementation of the
pro,ect" At the time of clearance of the pro,ect from the cainet# a fe& ma,or
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departments &ere asked to give oth their opinion on the pro,ect and
commitment in terms of numer of services they &ill host on the moile
platform at the start of the pro,ect" It is this commitment on the part of the
departments that provided ig *llip to the pro,ect" Telcos &ere also taken on+
oard from the time of the 8oC itself" 0ot only they provided prompt
integration access# their &allets &ere also included as the mode of payment
on the platform" Department of Telecom# )overnment of India and Telecom
.egulatory Authority of India helped in providing uniform numer across
channels and telcos and .eserve /ank of India helped in streamlining the
moile payment landscape in the country" Instant Moile 8ayment System
;IM8S= of 0ational 8ayment Corporation of India &as also made part of the
pro,ect from the eginning itself and a demonstration on their payment
technology &as given a platform in the 8oC" >AS providers &ere also
involved in the pro,ect y sharing &ith them a &hite paper on provision of
>alue Added services on Moile!ne and taking their opinion on the
frame&ork" The moile governance frame&ork created &in+&in situation for
oth implementing agency i"e" Ce) and >AS providers Bon one hand these
services provide revenue opportunities for government to make the pro,ect
self+sustainale on the other hand >AS providers get access to all the
channels and a common platform for launching their services &ithout having
to deal &ith individual telcos" @urther# the moneti(ation opportunity
presented y Moile!ne helps them to reduce their dependencies on the
telcos and get larger revenue share"
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A healthy relationship &ith the MS8 is vital for the success of the pro,ect" It is
for this reason that the Master Service Agreement ;MSA= &as made part of
the .@8 to elicit comments and to lay do&n acceptale ground rules" The
roles and responsiilities of the implementing agency# departments and MS8
are very clearly de*ned in the .@8" The usiness model is designed in such a
manner that there is an incentive for the MS8 to put in its
est e5orts in the pro,ect"
It is interesting to note that the pro,ect &as
conceptuali(ed during the time of /J8 government and
&as implemented &hen Congress formed the
government in the state" The initial approval to thepro,ect# the government order mandating the use of the
platform y departments# conduct of the 8oC and
pulishing of the .@8 &ere done during /J8 regime" The
a&ard of tender# cainet approval to the *nal plan and
actual implementation took place in Congress regime" In
oth instances there &as full support of the political
e%ecutive as it is in their electoral interest to sho&
themselves as &orking for improving the e7ciency of
service delivery and ringing government closer to the
people" In fact congress used this initiative to sho&case
that Karnataka could implement &hat 8rime Minister Shri
0arender Modi &as still talking aout +of using moile
technology to transform service delivery"
Intellectual /ro!ert" +ig$ts
Moile!ne &as conceptuali(ed as a Moile Service Delivery )ate&ay on
8latform as a Service Model" It essentially serves as a conduit for oth
departments and citi(ens for delivery of services on moile" To the
departments# the platform provides the readymade infrastructure and access
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to all the moile channels of delivery &ith no overhead costs" To the citi(ens#
the uni*ed approach of providing all the services under one numer and U.
simpli*es the process of discovery and access to services" The platform
essentially acts as a middle&are and the applications and data continue to
reside &ith the departments" The o&nership of applications and data created
thereof# vests &ith the departments" In this &ay Moile!ne initiative is very
di5erent from the other e+governance initiatives like e+procurement that are
created to electronicallyenale a usiness process that &as earlier availale
manually and re'uire lots of customi(ation and need to have intellectual
rights over the solution" A commercial+o5+the+shelf ;cots= solution in
Moile!ne helps in keeping the costs lo& and provides $e%iility to s&itch to
a ne& solution &henever the circumstances and technological osolesce so
demand" Also# it ensures a speedy deployment and launch of services" The
lack of proprietary rights over the platform does not in any &ay limit the
replicaility aspect of Moile!ne as it is designed to host applications of oth
government and private parties" At present the platform has applications of
oth government of Karnataka as &ell as that of central government"
+e!licabilit" of t$e Mobilene model and /olic" Im!lications
e
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8artnership &ith independent pro,ect management structure designed to
speci*cally manage the challenges relating to technology# policies# process
and human resource management largely insulate the pro,ect from political
risks associated &ith the pro,ect" Innovation in use of moile technology and
usiness process re+engineering incorporated therein allo&s for leapfrogging
limitations of lack of digiti(ed data in cases &here either no legacy data is
re'uired or data can e created as one goes ahead" Institutionali(ed training
helps in capacity uilding of the government personnel to ring them in the
forefront of cutting edge technology"
/otential for +e!licabilit"
Moile!ne provides a comprehensive frame&ork for moile governance to
take o5 in the state of Karnataka and eyond" It covers entire range of
technological solutions availale in the market for service delivery+ SMS#
USSD# I>.# moile &e and smart client" /eing modular in architecture# it has
provision to add more channels in the future such as 0@C# Smart T> etc" This
feature provides for future+proo*ng against technology osolescence" The
uni*ed approach ensures ease of access to the citi(ens and aas &ell as a
&ell estalished space for service discovery" Citi(ens need not rememer
multiple numers and synta%es to access services as at one
numer9U.9smart client do&nload they can *nd all the government and
value added services" This uni*ed approach in service delivery is the US8 of
Moile !ne and makes it stand apart from all the moile governance
initiatives taken so far not only in India ut &orld over" A fe& countries like
South Korea# Singapore and stonia do provide a ma,ority of government
services on moile phones ut their strategy is smart phone oriented" In
emerging countries# like India# &here the penetration of smart phone is
limited# smart phone oriented strategy &ill not &ork" Though India ranks
third among the top countries for smart phone users &ith an estimated 11E
million suscriers# ehind only China and the US ut the penetration of
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smart phones as a percentage of moile users in India is pegged at ,ust 12
per cent# the lo&est among the top 2 smart phone markets " This calls for a
strategy that is uni*ed at the same time multi+channel oriented to cater to
all kind of devices availale in the market" Moile!ne frame&ork can e
easily replicated in all the emerging nations &ith similar moile suscrier
ase" ven in developed nations like US# the smart phone penetration is
around 3< percent and has scope for adoption of multi+channel ut uni*ed
approach for delivery of pulic services on moiles" Therefore# the iggest
strength of Moile!ne is that it is not ,ust amalgamation of a fe& delivery
channels or applications it is much more than the sum of its part and has
provided the strategic path&ay for doing government usiness through
moiles"
=a" A$ead
Moile!ne is a *rst of its kind pro,ect in the &orld that has come out &ith
oth a comprehensive frame&ork on moile governance and a uni*ed
approach in service delivery" 8resently there are 422 services availale on
the platform that makes it a largest moile platform in the &orld" /ut the
pro,ect is still taking shape and there is much ground left to e covered"
@irst of all# the study of services and user ase sho&s it to e essentially
uran centric" In order to derive full ene*ts of moile technology for
government service delivery# it is of utmost importance that Moile!ne
reaches the remotest part of the state especially the rural areas" If lack of
payment instruments availale in the rural area is a hindrance then a
mediated service model &herein either a local government servant like a
postman or a neighorhood shop+o&ner can mediate for payment services"
according to the latest LInternet trends
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vangeli(ing the concept of delivery of services on moile re'uires more
concerted e5orts on the part of implementing agency" Apart from a fe&
promotional activities that &ere undertaken at the time of launch# no other
promotional and client+educational activities have een undertaken" Since
the pro,ect is ne it re'uires intensive promotional activities oth in uran
and rural areas# to oth populari(e the services availale on the moile and
to estalish the rand name"
The .@8 talks aout setting up of an innovation center to *ll the gap et&een
&hat is desired y citi(ens and &hat is provided to them y the government"
The purpose of the innovation centre is to give *llip to innovations in the
area of service delivery on moiles y sho&casing est practices availale inoth government and private space# y e%posing certain A8Is and dataases
to pulic for application development purposes# y providing space for such
applications on the 8latform# y re&arding innovations and y providing
funding for such endeavors"