Transforming public health, bus travel and more

The PDA is going places in the south, especially in Andhra Pradesh. AKHTAR PASHA takes a ride

Handheld devices have been used for the past five years in rural India. Now in Andhra Pradesh (AP), Analogic handhelds (a locally developed device manufactured by Analogic Technologies) are used on State Express Transport Corporation buses to issue passenger tickets. What next? For starters, handheld vendors such as PicoPeta, Encore Software and Casio are cashing in on the demand for these products in e-governance.

In the current fiscal Casio expects 50 percent of its total PDA sales in India to come from e-governance projects, says KULBHUSAN SETH

Market size

A Nasscom study on e-governance pegs the market opportunity at Rs 1,400 crore. Says Vinay Deshpande, chairman and chief executive officer, Encore, "The potential demand for handhelds in terms of units is anywhere between half a million and one million units per year." He adds that if all the pilot projects currently in testing go well, his company expects 50 percent of its total sales to come from e-governance projects.

Says Swami Manohar of PicoPeta Simputer, "The Simputer (a handheld device) was designed keeping e-governance applications in mind. Its computing power, combined with a smart card reader, is what’s required for the typical e-governance application." He says the sales potential of the Simputer as a solution (hardware and software) is huge—lakhs of units could be sold in Indian e-governance projects. For instance, the Bangalore Electric Supply Company (Bescom) alone has floated a tender for 500 handhelds, and the Simputer meets Bescom’s requirements.

Casio is also upbeat about sales to government agencies. In 2002, 23 percent (4,700) of Casio’s total PDA sales (20,500) came from the AP government. Reveals Kulbhusan Seth, Casio’s chief manager for market planning, "In the current fiscal we expect 50 percent of our total sales, i.e. 15,000 units, to come from e-governance projects." Casio is now in talks with government departments in AP and Karnataka.

Data collection

A number of factors are driving the demand for handheld devices in the country. Government agencies want to make revenue-collection more efficient, improve decision support systems, bring in transparency, and offer better services to citizens. Handheld devices help in data collection. Explains Deshpande: "Handheld devices are used where mobility is required. One cannot carry a desktop or notebook PC everywhere. This is where a handheld is the natural choice."

Each month, the Central Power Distribution Company (CPDC) in AP generates 4.8 million bills for its consumers. Processing these bills used to take three weeks. But now, a beaming Srinivas Rao, director for finance & IT at CPDC explains that the Analogic handheld is used for issuing a ‘Spot Bill’ for electricity units utilised by the consumer. "Using these handhelds, we have been able to reduce the billing cycle from three weeks to one day. Additionally, the data from the handheld is directly uploaded to a central server. This data is immediately made available to all the e-Seva centres so our consumers can pay the electricity bill without any hassles." The devices have also reduced the number of complaints, so customer confidence has increased.

Meanwhile, the Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (Gescom) is using 15 units of the PicoPeta Simputer (with printer attached) for spot billing of electricity meters. Gescom issues 30,000 bills per month. Manohar gives a few figures. "In the manual system, a Gescom employee could cover only 100-120 houses per day. But using the Simputer, the same employee now covers 250 houses in a single day. Consequently, Gescom’s revenue collections have gone up by 20-30 percent per month on an average."

The potential demand for handhelds in terms of units is anywhere between half a million and one million units per year, says VINAY L DESHPANDE

Services through PDAs

The Indian PDA market is driven by task-oriented applications used by various government agencies for e-governance projects that aim to offer better services to citizens, especially in healthcare and rural education. The AP government is using 4,700 units of Casio Pocket Viewer PVS 600 in 23 district schools for monitoring attendance in rural government schools. Says Dr M B Srinivasa, professor at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, "We are using PDAs to collect data on 3,000 students every fortnight. This data is then analysed to check for potential school dropouts in the state. The objective of this project is to give common minimum education to all children."

Similarly, 220 iPAQs are used by 33 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in two divisions—Phongir and Surya Pet—of Nalgonda district in AP. The iPAQs are being used to provide healthcare services to 1.5 million citizens. Government PHCs are using the data to check infant mortality and immunisation of children, to monitor medicines administered to pregnant women, and to keep track of family planning services and birth and death registrations. In addition, the PDAs are used for collecting data about stocks of medicines. Declares Neelam Sawhney, commissioner of family welfare in the AP government, "The presence of auxiliary nurses and midwives with a mobile computing device at the doorstep of people in villages is enhancing the quality of healthcare for our rural masses. It is also improving the productivity of the health service provider. This solution has great potential for use in all villages and e-governance projects in the country."

Remote reading

The handheld brigade expects to bring about a revolution through remote reading of electricity meters. Encore is the process of developing a Radio Frequency (RF)-enabled handheld that can read electricity meters from a distance of 10 metres (the meters will be retrofitted with RF). Says Deshpande, "It will help meter readers collect data without entering the customer’s premises. The solution will hit the market before the end of this year." Power distribution companies such as Tata Power and Brihanmumbai Suburban Electric Supply (BEST) have expressed interest in such projects.

Not wanting to be left behind, PicoPeta is testing a Bluetooth-enabled Simputer for remote reading of electricity meters. However, its strategy will be to focus on industrial hubs where the power consumption is worth Rs 60,000 and above.

PDA usage in e-governance projects

Source: Vendors & AP government agencies