Case Study

MPs to stay connected via SMS

Pratap Vikram Singh writes about the automation of communication processes in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats

If Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats have to communicate either legislative or general information to their members, few years back, they used to send letters to the Members of Parliament. After integrating with IT, the Secretariats sent e-mails keeping them informed of the latest happenings. Now, with latest automation in the communication processes, all this is done through an SMS, which reaches in seconds.

With most of the MPs being constantly on the move, they are not in a position to check mails every now and then. Moreover, a politician’s disinclination towards technology is well known, hence communication through emails also does not necessarily mean that the MPs will check the same.

With the deployment of the software, Velocity Plus, the Secretariat can send information on legislative matters, parliamentary committee meetings and their cancellation, press releases, critical information for the public in time of urgency, clarification, etc., through SMS to ‘n’ number of cell numbers. This automation service is being provided by a messaging services provider company, ValueFirst.

Services in Rajya Sabha

In Rajya Sabha, the messaging service is being used to send SMS to MPs and as well to press persons. Information on parliamentary sessions, committee meetings and cancellation of meetings are now delivered in very less time.

Following the traditional way of communication till recent past, for quite a long time the Secretariat sent letters by Speed Post to MPs’ residential addresses, apprising them of the recent summoning and prorogation of the sessions and the committee meetings. But this process took at least 24 hours with the probability of the letter not being received by the concerned MP.

The RS Secretariat also publishes information, legislative and general, in the ‘Gadget of India’, a circular issued regularly to keep MPs posted on the required information.

Since the 213th session (this year’s Budget session) of the RS, this new deployment became operational with all communications done on time.

A source from RS Secretariat said, “The Secretariat has 20 sections (departments) of which 15 to 16 do SMS to 245 MPs of the RS, and the other sections use it for other purposes. For instance, Press and Public Relations use SMS for informing media persons about the latest happenings in legislative, administrative and cultural matters.”

Services in Lok Sabha

Unlike Rajya Sabha, initially the messaging system here is being utilized for communicating with media people and is being used by the Press and Public Relations wing of the Secretariat. The Secretariat is planning to start sending SMSs for passing information to MPs in the months to come.

“Any happening related to LS and RS usually becomes news for the whole country and to the rest of the globe, but it becomes authentic news only when it is formally stated by the Secretariat,” a highly placed source in the LS Secretariat said while emphasizing the relevance of quick information system in the institution.

Citing an example of how efficient and time-saving this deployment has proved, the official said, “When the order of the LS Speaker came on disqualification of members from the House of Parliament, it was sent by an SMS to about 200 press persons at a time and hence the public came to know about it earlier, as compared with events in the past.”

No specific hardware is required for this software. It is just installed in the computer systems. “Velocity utilizes proprietary multithreading technology to provide efficient transmission of large volume of data, even on low-end desktop terminals with slow Internet connectivity,” said Vijay Shukla, Country Head, ValueFirst.

What it costs?

Sources in the Secretariats said that the license fee for the software is not being charged from them. As far as operational expenditure is concerned, the services are being offered in pre-paid and post-paid manner. For pre-paid, the number of SMS is fixed and one can send limited number of messages to limited number of people.

In the post-paid scheme, which is opted for by large enterprises, ‘n’ number of messages are sent and accordingly the bill is served at the end of the month.

Per message charge is 35 paise, but for LS and RS Secretariats there is a discounted rate of 27 paise per SMS.

Future plans

Elaborating on the future automation of manual processes and the RS Secretariat’s integration with ICT, sources in RS Secretariat said that the House debates since 1952 are being digitized and will be systematically posted on the Parliament website with a search option.

Also, with the help of ‘Mantra’ software, jointly developed by the RS Secretariat and C-DAC, which is in use for translating text from English to Hindi, is being expanded so that text from English can be translated to more Indian languages.

Further, workflow automation is being done through an ‘e-File’ system, whereby manual workflow system would be automated and work like verifications, sanctions, file transfer, inter alia, would be done on computers connected with the common network.

In a move towards making the Secretariat a “paper-less” office, an official said, “The roadmap for automation of the pay roll system is also being worked out and it is being done with the participation of CMC, an Indian IT solutions provider company.”

Lok Sabha is planning to do further digitization of old parliamentary reports and collections with the help of National Informatics Centre. Also, the Secretariat is going for Microsoft Office version 2007, to be installed on desktops.

pratap.vikram@expressindia.com