Government Services Platform of CSDC could bring revolution to India

Dan Mishra, Chairman - CSDC in an exclusive interview with VARINDIA talks about the talent pool in the country, on how it is meeting the global demand through adequate training & development and how CSDC as a global company is leveraging this talent to contribute to the global product market -    
 
Vision to make India digital
Having worked in the technology business for 47 years since 1970, I am very passionate about the opportunity and I know digitization is the only way to improve the economies and fortunes of all developing countries and their citizens. Since I left India in 1969 for Canada, to get my post graduate education in computer science, I have been thinking of how Governments can improve the speed and quality of their services for the common man, having seen the painful experience of my father to receive his meagre pension on time. 

Having experienced the long, and often times, failed attempts at developing effective computer solutions, it occurred to me that the weakest link was programming and the programmers due to their lack of focused serial thinking. Hence the quest is for minimizing, if not eliminating, programming required for business systems development. We first developed some smart governance software back in 1990s, i.e. 27 years ago in Canada which subsequently went viral in Canada and US. Over 300 governments and institutions use our software to deliver their services to citizens seamlessly and quickly. So I believe that it can also help India and all other developing countries.

India’s talent meeting global demand
We certainly believe in it, otherwise we won’t have moved our research and development facilities to India in 2002.  That was 15 years ago and since then all our research & development is based out of India. Our software Platform called AMANDA is completely made in India at 3 different centres -Bhubaneswar, Delhi and Chennai. We have very large team working in R&D facilities in India developing the product that sells globally.

Talents in India development centre
They are incredible. They keep our products technologically most current. Every new technology is baked into our products whether it’s Mobile, Internet and Cloud Computing, IOT, Data Mining and Business Intelligence. They are all built into our products and they are all being developed here. Customers do not need additional investments in software development. So the talents are very good. This brings good economic value in the world market. Otherwise we wouldn’t be developing all our software here.

Currently, we are present in 16 different countries.  That includes Canada, US, all the Caribbean countries, Africa, and India. We started offering our products in India only 2 years after we understood the real commitment to technology by the newly elected Government at the Centre. 

Indian talent competing across the globe
It depends in which area. For example, say artificial intelligence I would say not yet. Not at the level of countries like US, Japan, Canada, and England as they are quite ahead. So is Switzerland, Germany that are very good in artificial Intelligence.

Offering right solution resulting in an inclusive growth
Well the reason we started a sales team in India 2 years ago is that we believe that this technology may help Indian Government become more responsive, smart, and citizen focused very quickly. It should not take decades. There are thousands of apps required to be developed at all levels of the Government. The need of the day is automated Platforms to develop these apps quickly.

“We provide quicker and better services to the citizens because our product is designed for that. Without seamless and smart government the citizens will not improve their fortunes, whether it is farmers or whether it is professionals or the teachers they need good governance. Even economic development depends on good smart and quick response from the governments.  If it takes me 2 years to get a building permit, it means the economy is held back a bit for 2 years. So, faster the government services are rendered to the citizens I think the country will grow faster.”

Take on present government’s strong move towards digitization and reforms
It’s wonderful. I have been personally dreaming about it for a long time. Even though I have lived in Canada for 47 years, I am an Indian at heart. I wish that our government could be as advanced as in the West. Now finally, under the new government it seems to be moving towards reality. Across all Governments, I see tremendous support and hunger for Digitization and seamless governance. Also their emphasis on made in India products is very gratifying.

Contributing expertise to the country
We have developed a product to make Governments smarter and that too very quickly. Usually developing smart computerized solutions takes time. The normal course of development - which is requirements gathering, specification, design, software development, testing and implementation takes considerable time and cost. Our product platform called AMANDA is configurable for all forms of Citizen Services such as Permitting, Compliance of all sorts, Licensing, Request for Information, all kinds of Court Proceedings, Grants Management, Public health, Public Safety etc. It is a near zero code platform. This means you don’t have to get into extensive design and programming to develop an automated solution.You can go straight from requirement to the final solutionin a few weeks, not months and years. 

How is Amanda interesting?
Originally it stood for Application Management and Meta Data Automation. All design and logic is meta data in AMANDA. Solutions can be built and maintained by simply changing data, not coding. Sustaining the solutions is also very quick and inexpensive.It is an interesting fact that most of our customers tell us, after working with AMANDA for a bit, that they can do anything with it. They have hardly any backlog. That’s what makes it most interesting. If your government, the minister, PM or senior management suddenly get an idea and you tell the IT department to implement it, with Amanda you can easily do it in days and sometimes even in hours, depending on how simple that particular request is. We feel gratified to seethat the IT people are not always burdened with never ending backlogs.

Why have you designed for the government segment and not for the corporate?
Government’s business is to serve the citizens, so we know they need the citizen’s profile and the services in general. In every country it’s the same - your name, address and few other attributes like Aadhar Card or Pan Card number. In Canada its SIN number, in US its SSN number etc. So the database scheme for a typical citizen profile is built in already. All variants of data is maintained by the Users of the system. All workflow and business rules are also maintained as variable user defined data. All interfaces to external systems and devices are maintained as configurable web services. The Platform automatically generates all User Interfaces which are also modifiable by changing data. The Database is automatically designed and optimized. So really, there is not much design and programming to do. 

Every country we have been to is the same. Now the difference is easily configured usually within minutes. In corporate sector the dimensions are many more, so it is very difficult to model every possible thing in a very generic platform. So our platform is a government services platform.

Solutions offered by CSDC globally and benefit for India
The governments of many countries have adopted it because of its speed of deployment, and they have the extra benefit that anytime you want to change anything, they can do it very quickly without involving the vendor all the time.

India definitely needs it because the governments in India can automate at every levels of Panchayat, State or Central, there are millions of applications they need to develop to provide better service to citizens. This is an ideal platform to do that quickly. Just the authority has to define what the processes are and they themselves can set it done. They can define the dependencies of the processes, the system automatically generates all the codes necessary to ensure the flow of processes, dependencies and the rules.

Global presence of CSDC
We have presence in Canada, US and all the Caribbean countries, Africa, Great Britain, Australia and India. We have not entered China and the Arab countries yet. Our global turnover is about $100 million. 

To add on, we have also few different business model for the developing countries particularly Africa where we provide our software and services for free as they find it difficult to obtain capital. We work on a PPP model. We implement the solution for them and then we train their people to sustain it under a long term technology agreement. It helps spread Indian Technology globally and it helps governments in developing countries provide good services to citizens. Otherwise it would be a catch 22 situation – no money to develop systems and no systems to generate money.

Complementing the vision of PM Modi on Zero defect and Zero effect
Well that is what we are all about. Zero programming means zero defect. Less effort in systems development means to dedicate more resources for maximum effect. Also, our platform ensures complete validation of data and fully secured and authorized changes to data. This ensures accuracy of information and effectiveness of processes.

Departments that can take benefits from Amanda
Well at all government services starting from Local Panchayat level to Central Government and any kind of citizens compliance, tax collection, any complaints for repairs to infrastructure and public health issues, public safety issues, speeding up of Courts and so on can take benefits of these services. Same goes with the State and Centre level but has got to do more with licensing, building permits, traffic control, challans, rights to information, grants etc.

Its mind boggling and the opportunities are unlimited. Every time I am interacting with government agencies and I find that this can be improved and that should be improved. I don’t need to stand in a line, if I can do this online at my home, my office why should I be coming here wasting a day to apply for a permit or license, or to file a complaint. I don’t even know where to complain? I should be able to lodge a complaint from my smartphone. If there is a big pothole I should be able to take a picture and immediately send to the public works department so they can react to it. Thousands of ideas come to my mind every time I spend a day in India.

New initiatives of Dan into Investment banking 
ICAD is the Indo-Canadian Asset Development Bank in Dubai. It was originally funded by me, but there are many other people who have joined since. Its business is two-fold, to help young technology companies to grow. Mostly they are sustainable operational companies, but are stymied due to lack of capital. We like to fund entrepreneurs with a vision of growth and social impact. We will fund both product and services companies. Product companies sometimes fail due to lack of funds because they cannot do marketing or upgrade the software to the latest technology. We can help them through that. Similarly, services companies cannot grow because of lack of working capital. 

ICAD only invests in companies that make a big social impact. For example, 5 years ago we invested in a BPO company in India which not only has grown seven folds since, but also has trained fourteen thousand lower skilled people among the poorest segments of the population. We also invest in Tourism and Hospital sectors in less developed areas of India, again to have a big social impact by creating many lower skilled jobs among people who are hard to employ. 

World Class Solution for e-court

Rajat Chand
MD, CSDC Systems

We have many countries using e- court solutions, using technology to maximize the effects on the citizens. A very simple thing - a lawyer makes a motion to postpone a date; here both the parties go to court to take time of the judge and the judge hears the reasons for why they want to postpone and grants a new date. This does not advance the resolution of the case and yet consumes a lot of resources and time. This happens a lot. My brother is a party to a minor civil case which has taken so far four years and eleven court dates without a resolution in sight. 

Where they use our e-Court solution, the litigants and their lawyers don’t go to court.They use internet to make motions, online motion, and the judge usually has a pad and they see the motion and the evidence needed in digital form. The Judge takes immediate decision and both the lawyers are informed immediately about the new date. It saves the time and money of the citizens and court resources.