5.1 The SCA as Aggregator: 

The SCA would act as service aggregator for all the CSC service requests for (G2C) or (B2C) services. The SCA would establish connectivity to the State Data Centre using SWAN or other modes of connectivity and route the B2C requests through intranet / internet to the other content providers. The exhibit 24 below summarizes a high level perspective of the deployment architecture:

Exhibit 24:Point-to-Point SCA-CSC connectivity





5.2 Centralized Deployment Architecture: 

Centralised Deployment Architecture is the suggested option. The network operations and management of IT infrastructure will be efficient and most effective under this option. The SCA would be in a better position to undertake centralised infrastructure management using full control over the CSC’s digital assets.



5.3 The SCA Portal: 

The core business services of the SCA should be made available to the CSC through a centralized SCA portal application. The Portal would offer information, applications and services all in one place. Thus, it will inherently work as an organizing tool helping the SCA/CSCs to organize their electronic workspace, their daily tasks and their jobs as a whole. The Portal would provide the functionality for Single Sign ons, Registration and Authentication, Service Metering of transactions, Multi lingual Support, Transaction Routing, Payment Gateway, Off Line/On Line transaction support, etc

5.4 Simplifying the CSC interface for a rural user: 

A large percentage of the Indian rural citizens are illiterate. Even the literates have been educated in their native tongue and are not familiar with the English language. As a consequence, any content in English or in any other Indian language not their own, is inaccessible to them. Further there is a whole host of historical content available only in print media, which has yet to be digitized. Delivering this content to the rural citizen through the CSC is thus a challenging task. There are many new emerging technologies and solutions, such as Text to Speech (TTS), Machine Aided Translation (MAT), besides operating systems and office tools are also are available in multiple Indian Languages. The Unicode Standards has made it possible to develop applications with labels and data available in Indian languages. Many operating systems, Database software are Unicode compliant. 



5.5 The Technology Requirements – SCA

5.5.1 A variety of transactions: The SCA’s relationships in the CSC value chain with the various service providers and stakeholders is depicted in Exhibit 25:




Exhibit 25:SCA Relationships 







5.5.2 To enable the SCA to handle such multiplicity, the IT process model needed is depicted in Exhibit 26:




Exhibit 26: SCA Enterprise IT Process Model 

5.6 IT-Assets – SCA:
A high-level IT Asset specification with indicative cost is provided in Exhibit 27. It is recommended that an SCA should scale up its IT asset base at its Data Centre with a growth in operations and volume of business



Exhibit 27: IT Architecture and Indicative Cost – SCA

Exhibit 27: IT Architecture and Indicative Cost – SCA

 

IT Asset	Brief Specification	Indicative Cost (Rs)
Servers: Application, Database Messaging, Domain Controller, Web Server	Dual Processor Xeon 3.6 GHz standard OR 2 x Single Core AMD 254 (2.8 GHz) Opteron standard	20,00,000
Desktop Computer Terminals (6)	Intel Or AMD. Pentium AMD 64 3000+ or Higher RPM or Higher	1,50,000
Network and Data Centre equipment	WAN Router, LAN Switches,CAT6 Cabling, Access Control	4,00,000
IS Security	Anti Virus (Server/Desktop) Firewall	1,40,000
Network Management Solutions	Desktop / Asset / Patch / AV updates mgmt.	7,00,000
MFD InkJet Based (Colour/ B&W)	3.2 MP Resolution still photo capability	10,000
Communication	Dedicated Internet Link	18,00,000
SCA Portal/ Application	Web Based On/Off line mode	5,00,000
Database and Messaging tools	Database and Messaging Solutions	4,00,000

5.7 Process Overview and Digital Technology Requirements - CSC

5.7.1 The key relationships within the CSC’s value chainis represented in Exhibit 28: 




Exhibit 28: CSC Relationships 




5.7.2 The CSC process model with specific reference to IT enabled processes is depicted in the CSC Enterprise IT Management model in the Exhibit 29 



Exhibit 29: CSC - Enterprise Process Model

5.8 IT-Assets – CSC 

5.8.1 The suggested IT specification with indicative costs thereof is provided in Exhibit 30:

Exhibit 30: IT Architecture and Indicative Cost – CSC

Exhibit 30: IT Architecture and Indicative Cost – CSC

5.9 Some suggested measures: 
5.9.1 The State Governments should be encouraged to establish a Centralised state-of-the-art State Data Centre (SDC). The SDC should host all the databases across the various State Government departments, District/Taluka offices. The States should also move towards a regime of web enabled databases (if not enabled till now) to allow delivery of services or information over the web. Some State departments have computerised their backend systems and many of them have enabled them on different platforms. The States should work towards setting up a middleware to help seamless delivery of services across the State. The States could embark upon such a project on a PPP model. This would greatly enhance service availability at the CSC. (Certificates with a Digital Signature should become valid and acceptable document as per the provisions of the IT Act.) The States should work out a mechanism for settlement of dues with the SCAs at a centralised level. Currently such a practice is not prevalent and most of the rural kiosks collecting cash do a local settlement with the regional offices. The States could also look into integrating its services with a payment gateway to obviate need for reconciliation or periodic settlement.