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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"

G


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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"

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