Information Technology Department: Mukkur N. Subramanian
Information Technology Department: Mukkur N. Subramanian
DEPARTMENT
POLICY NOTE
2013 – 2014
DEMAND NO. 31
Mukkur N. Subramanian
Minister for Information Technology
©
Government of Tamil Nadu
2013
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
DEMAND NO. 31
POLICY NOTE – 2013-2014
INDEX
Chapter Contents Page
No.
I INTRODUCTION 1-4
II ELECTRONICS CORPORATION OF 5
TAMIL NADU LIMITED (ELCOT)
Hardware Procurement 14
Software Development 15
It is the vision of our Hon’ble Chief Minister to Management, Computer Aided Designing (CAD) and
make Tamil Nadu as India’s most prosperous and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE).
Information Technology has helped the Provide Cable TV services to all households in
transformation of Tamil Nadu into a modern economy. Tamil Nadu at reasonable rates;
Tamil Nadu has emerged as one of the leading players
and acknowledged Global leader in certain verticals of the
1 2
Provide Tamil Education through web and This has given a new impetus to the growth of BPO sector
taking Computing in Tamil to a higher level; in Tamil Nadu.
Enhance the quality of life of citizens through Nearly 3,75,000 employees are employed in about
Information and Communication Technology. 1780 IT/ IT Enabled Services (ITES) companies in the
State, wherein, the IT revolution is taking place in a rapid
In order to achieve the objective of providing phase. The software exports from the State during the
Government services, both informational and year 2012-13 is expected to be around Rs.50,000 crores
transactional to citizens at their door steps, the with an impressive growth rate of more than 10%.
Government is making all endeavors to provide various Continuous efforts are being taken to attract more
services to the citizens using Information Technology IT/ITES investments in the State.
as a means of service delivery. An e-Governance Policy
The Hon’ble Chief Minister has revived the Tamil
enumerating the above initiatives will soon be launched,
Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited and it is
which will enable the people of Tamil Nadu to get the
providing Cable TV services from 02.09.2011 to
benefits of the Technology.
people at an affordable cost of Rs.70/- as monthly
An Information and Communication Technology subscription. Continuous efforts are being made to
(ICT) policy is also in the pipeline to take the IT revolution improve its services to the people of Tamil Nadu.
to next stage. An enhanced Rural Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) Policy was released by Hon’ble Chief
Minister in July 2012. The policy envisages various
incentives to companies starting Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) companies in rural areas of the State.
3 4
CHAPTER – II
The Hon'ble Chief Minister has given a brand
identity to IT Special Economic Zones created by
ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
ELCOT b y naming them as” ELCOSEZ” which facilitates
OF TAMILNADU LIMITED (ELCOT)
marketing of ELCOSEZ's as the ‘Destinations of
Choice’ for IT / ITES investments. The ELCOSEZ’s have
Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited
started to attract considerable investments in the State.
(ELCOT), registered under the Indian Companies Act of
1956, is a wholly owned Government of Tamil Nadu
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIAL ECONOMIC
undertaking providing hand holding support to various
ZONES (ELCOSEZs)
Government Departments, Organizations, Boards, etc.,
in the area of Information Technology, e-Governance In order to spread the development of IT/ITES
and Capacity Building. ELCOT is also involved in industry throughout Tamil Nadu, ELCOT has established
Hardware procurement a n d software development.
eight ELCOSEZ in Chennai and seven Tier-II locations
viz. Coimbatore, Madurai (2), Trichy, Salem, Tirunelveli
M ajor turnkey IT projects such as the Tamil
and Hosur.
Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) and Tamil
Nadu State Data Centre (TNSDC) have been
ELCOSEZ-SHOLINGANALLUR, CHENNAI
established by ELCOT and maintained in a pioneering
way. ELCOT is also involved in the procurement of
Sholinganallur ELCOSEZ has been established in
“priceless Laptops” to students. ELCOT is a pioneer in
an area of 377.08 acres. The investment of ELCOT in
the development of IT Special Economic Zones in the
this ELCOSEZ is around Rs.194 Crores. In this
State.
ELCOSEZ, lands have been allotted on lease basis to
5 6
major IT Companies such as WIPRO-80 acres, HCL-50 ELCOSEZ-VILANKURICHI, COIMBATORE
acres, Satyam-50 acres, Sutherland-15 acres and
ELCOSEZ was established in 62 acres of land in
Cognizant Technology Solutions Limited -20 acres.
Vilankurichi Village, Coimbatore. The investment of
ELCOT in this ELCOSEZ is Rs.70 crores. ELCOT allotted
The major IT/ITES companies viz., M/s WIPRO
lands to major IT Companies such as M/s WIPRO- 9.5
have completed 27 lakhs sq.ft. building and are in
acres and M/s TIDEL Park Coimbatore Limited-9.5 acres
operation with 19,000 employees. M/s HCL have
in this ELCOSEZ. M/s WIPRO have constructed IT
constructed 10 lakhs sq.ft. building and started operations
building in 3.5 lakhs sq.ft. and 90% of the construction has
with 10,000 employees. In addition to that 22 lakhs sq.ft.
been completed. M/s Tidel Park Coimbatore Limited has
IT Building construction work is under progress. M/s
completed the construction of 17 lakhs sq.ft. IT Building.
SATYAM have completed 6.25 lakhs sq.ft. building and
Out of 17 lakhs sq.ft available, 9 lakhs sq.ft. has been
are operating with 4,000 employees. M/s Cognizant
allotted for IT purposes. Presently 4.56 lakhs sq.ft. has
Technology Solutions have commenced 28 lakhs sq.ft.
been occupied by 11 IT/ITES Companies. In this
building work which is under progress. The balance land
ELCOSEZ the creation of common infrastructure facilities
available for allotment in this ELCOSEZ is 92.36 acres. In
work has been completed at an estimated cost of Rs. 19
this ELCOSEZ, the common infrastructure work were
crores.
completed at an estimated cost of Rs. 42 crores. In this
ELCOSEZ, ELCOT has constructed 6358 sq.ft.
administrative building with an investment of Rs.126 lakhs
which was inaugurated by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil
Nadu on 15.10.2012.
7 8
ELCOSEZ-ILANDHAIKULAM AND VADAPALANJI, basis to M/s. HCL Limited, 50 Acres of land to M/s.
MADURAI Sathyam Limited, 5 Acres of land to M/s. Sutherland
Limited, 5 acres of land to M/s. Caliber Point, and 2
In Madurai, 28.91 acres of land in Ilandhaikulam
Acres of land to M/s. Health Plan System India Ltd.
Village and 245.17 acres of land in Vadapalanji have been
alienated to ELCOT for establishing two ELCOSEZs by
ELCOSEZ-NAVALPATTU, TIRUCHY
the Government of Tamil Nadu.
13 14
Software Development Government aided Arts and Science and Engineering
ELCOT has implemented Farmer Crop Colleges and Polytechnics in Tamil Nadu.
15 16
CHAPTER – III ( POPs) has been established in the State by ELCOT
and services such as Voice, Data, Internet and Video for
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE the Government Departments are being provided through
the Network. TNSWAN provides highly secured
Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure is the
connectivity from 2Mbps to 8Mbps bandwidth to all the
integrated framework upon which digital network
District Collectorates, Taluk Offices and Block
operates. The IT Infrastructure includes Data Centre,
Development Offices (BDOs) thereby facilitating the
Computer networks and Database Management devices.
Government departments to access the servers placed at
Tamil Nadu is one of the few States in India to have a full
TNSDC. The Build, Own, Operate and Transfer
fledged Wide Area Network and State Data Centre. Tamil
(BOOT) Operation of the Network was completed on
Nadu has the following IT infrastructure at its disposal:-
30.11.2012 and action is being taken to continue the
a) Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) Operation and Maintenance of the Network in Phase -2.
b) Tamil Nadu State Data Centre (TNSDC)
c) ELCOT Data Centre Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) –
Horizontal Connectivity
d) National Knowledge Network (NKN)
In order to provide connectivity to Government
Departments outside TNSWAN, for getting intranet
Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) facility for rolling out their applications and also to avail
Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network is a shared other services such as Voice, Data, Internet, Video
scheme between the State and Central Government Conferencing, etc., Horizontal Connectivity has been
at an estimated cost of Rs.181.69 crores (GOI made available through TNSWAN Points of Presence
share Rs.97.17 crores and State share is Rs.84.52 (PoPs).
crores). TNSWAN having 708 Points of Presence
17 18
So far , Horizontal Connectivity has been provided Tamil Nadu State Data Centre (TNSDC)
to about 1853 offices of Government Departments such
Tamil Nadu State Data Centre (TNSDC) is one of
as Commercial Taxes, Tamil Nadu Water Supply and
the core e-Governance back bone infrastructure under
Drainage Board (TWAD), Tamil Nadu Health Systems
National e-Governance Action Plan (NeGP). It is a shared
Project (TNHSP), Treasuries & Accounts, Registration,
scheme between State and Central Governments as per
Employment & Training, Forest, Tamil Nadu e-Governance
the State Data Centre(SDC) Guidelines of Department of
Agency (TNeGA), State Health Society, Tamil Nadu
Information Technology (DIT), Government of India
Housing Board (TNHB), Survey and Settlement, Tamil
(GOI), at an estimated cost of Rs.60.80 crores (GOI
Nadu Cement Corporation Limited (TANCEM), Tamil Nadu
share Rs.55.80 crores & State Share Rs.5.00 crores).
Civil Supplies Corporation, etc.
Tamil Nadu is the first State in the country to obtain the
Broad Band Connectivity ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 and 27001:2005 certification for
Technological advancements have shrunk the the Data Centre operations and for Management of
world and communications have become real time which Information Security which is an important milestone in
demand more bandwidth. Broadband is one such high the operation of TNSDC.
speed data transmission facility which can carry a large
TNSDC is housed at ELCOT, Perungudi Complex
amount of data by offering more bandwidth. ELCOT is
and is being maintained with a strict Service Level
providing Broadband connectivity to Government Offices
Agreement (SLA) for ensuring 24 X 7 operation. TNSDC
at competitive rates. About 25,000 Government offices
is a highly secured infrastructure in which the
including schools have been provided with Broadband
Government departments can host their applications.
connectivity .
Some of the Government applications which are
operational in TNSDC are Tamil Nadu Health Systems
19 20
Project, Chennai Metro Rail Project, State Election progressively moving towards 40/100 Gigabits per
Commission Electoral Roll project, Enterprise Resource second (Gbps) connectivity. 1 Gbps speed line from NKN
Planning (ERP) for Priceless Fan, Mixie, Grinder and has been terminated in TNSDC with 100 Mbps Internet
Priceless Laptop scheme etc. Connectivity.
21 22
challenge to any Data Centre and hence establishment of CHAPTER-IV
a Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) becomes mandatory
to ensure the business continuity of the departments TAMIL NADU e-GOVERNANCE AGENCY
which are providing e-services. ELCOT has been
nominated as the implementing agency for setting up of Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA), a
Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) in a phased manner. State Nodal Agency and an intrinsic arm of Government
was formed under Societies Act to support and drive all
e-Governance initiatives of the Government. Tamil Nadu
e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) is implementing the
various e-Governance Projects under the National
e-Governance Plan with the vision of making all
Government services accessible to the common man in
his locality through common service delivery outlets and
ensures efficiency, transparency and reliability of such
services at affordable costs. The TNeGA carries out
State-wide Rollout of e-District Programme, State-wide
Rollout of Common Service Centres (CSC), Capacity
Building (CB) and Training, Tamil Nadu Geographical
Information System (TNGIS) and development of State
Portal.
23 24
State-wide Rollout of e-District Programme Departments Services
Social Welfare 6) Chief Minister’s Girl Child Backward 13) Educational Assistance
Protection Scheme Classes and to the students in
7) Moovalur Ramamirtham Minorities Professional Courses
Ammaiyar Ninaivu Marriage Welfare 14) Educational Assistance
Assistance Scheme to Graduate Students
8) Dr.Muthulakshmi Reddy 15) Educational Assistance to
Ninaivu Inter caste Marriage Polytechnic Students
Assistance Scheme
25 26
Departments Services The Government of India under the National
Adi Dravidar and 16) Government of India Post e-Governance Plan approved State-wide rollout of
Tribal Welfare Matric Scholarship for SC e-District programme. The remaining Districts of Tamil
Students Nadu will be converted as e-Districts and existing
17) Government of India Post e-Services as above will be extended to all the Districts.
Matric Scholarship for ST To augment State-wide rollout of e-District, suitable
Students System Integrator (SI) will be selected.
18) State Post Matric scholarship
for SC converted Christian District e-Governance Society (DeGS)
Students
To oversee the implementation of e-District
19) Free education upto Degree
programme and other e-Services offered at District Level,
level (Arts and Science)
the Government have ordered formation of District
20) Free education up to PG
level (Women - Arts and e-Governance Societies (DeGS) in all the Districts.
Science) Accordingly, 18 Districts have formed the District
e-Governance Societies and remaining Districts are in the
The 9 services pertaining to the BC, MBC and Adi process of forming the DeGS.
Dravidar Scholarship schemes have been implemented
throughout the State. The 11 services of Revenue and
Common Service Centres
Social Welfare departments have been implemented in
Realizing the basic need of the common man, the
the Pilot Districts. More services of various departments
Government has taken steps to provide all Government
are being identified and will be added to e-district
Services to the common man in his locality through
programme and will be delivered through e-Services.
27 28
Common Service Centres (CSCs). As of now, 2706 State Portal/State Services Delivery Gateway (SSDG)
centres which include Common Service Centres and The State Portal is a one stop access to the
Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) Information and e-Services of the Government and will be
are delivering the services. More new Common Service available anytime, anywhere. The development of the
Centres will be rolled out by the Service Centre Agency
State Portal and the auditing by Standardisation, Testing
(SCA) through an open tender process. and Quality Control (STQC) are in progress.
29 30
Capacity Building ¾ Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Training
31 32
Tamil Nadu Geographical Information System (TNGIS) CHAPTER-V
33 34
software applications will be held every year and the
winners will be honoured with the “Chief Minister’s Award Sl.No. Projects Implementation Support
for Excellence in e-Governance for Students”. In this 1. Agriculture ELCOT provided implementation
regard, nominations have been received from the (AGRISNET)
support for Farmer Crop
students and finalisation of awards is under progress. Management System. About 720
nos. of Android based Tablets
3) Facilitation for Mission Mode Departments have been issued to the
Agriculture Department staff for
The Government departments have been
capturing the crop details at the
Implementing IT projects for the past 10 years. For
field.
delivering the services to the citizens, the Government of
Tamil Nadu has prioritised the services of 14 Departments 2. Health 1) The Health and Family Welfare
(HMS &
as State Mission Mode Departments (MMDs). The Department implemented
HMIS)
Information Technology Department is facilitating the Hospital Management System
support infrastructure namely Tamil Nadu State Data (HMS) and Health
Centre (TNSDC), Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network Management Information
(TNSWAN) and Common Service Centres (CSC) for System (HMIS) in 267
37 38
Sl.No. Projects Implementation Support Sl.No. Projects Implementation Support
39 40
Sl.No. Projects Implementation Support Sl.No. Projects Implementation Support
41 42
System Requirements have been prepared and completed in the following departments’ applications and
development is in progress. websites.
order to measure the effectiveness of the schemes and to 4. Electricity Regulatory Authority
improve the reach of the benefits to the public, a “Scheme 5. Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation
Monitoring Application Software” will be implemented. This 6. Tamil Nadu Forest Department
tool will enable the Departments to review and monitor the 7. Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project
8. Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission
progress of the schemes on a real-time basis and take
decisions. An implementing Agency has been selected, 9. Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board
the System Requirements have been prepared and 10. Treasuries and Accounts Department
Government of Tamil Nadu announced that in order 7) E-Learning Content for Government Employees
to protect the Government websites and IT applications Government of Tamil Nadu constantly focuses on
from defacement and hacking, IT Security Auditing of the improving employees’ skills in order to gear up for large
websites and IT applications will be conducted in a scale e-Governance implementation in the State. To meet
phased manner. ELCOT has empanelled Security Audit the increasing need for Capacity Building requirements,
agencies and as of now, Security Audit has been the Government of Tamil Nadu announced to implement
43 44
e-Learning solution which refers to the online training to Government of Tamil Nadu has announced that
the participants. This system will also act as a repository other departments which intend to take up e-Governance
for training materials and the users can access them projects will re-engineer their processes and redesign their
regardless of time and place. This system provides the applications so as to integrate with State Data Centre,
flexibility of attending the training courses at their Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) and
convenience. Administrative approval has been accorded State Portal / State Services Delivery Gateway (SSDG).
for the scheme and further action is under progress. Detailed guidelines have been issued in this regard.
implemented their applications and have been using Workshop on State-wide Rollout of e-District programme
them for a long time. Such applications were developed at Chennai on 16/10/2012. The focus of the workshop was
using different platforms and technologies. However, to discuss and understand the e-District approach,
some systems were standards based but many systems implementation strategy and plans of States to enable
are still legacy in nature. Recently the Civil Supplies, completion of project in a time bound manner by aligning
Commercial Taxes, Health, Police, Registration and to the e-District Integrated Framework for delivery of
Treasuries & Accounts departments have taken up services. The IT Departments of Andaman & Nicobar
initiatives to re-engineer their processes and to implement Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and
45 46
9.2 Leadership Meet level. The Basic IT, Awareness on e-Governance, Vision,
Department of Electronics & Information Awareness on Services Delivery, e-Services and Common
Technology (DeiTy), Government of India approved the Service Centres have been covered during the Campaign.
specialized training programme called “e-Governance It is proposed to convene a State level Awareness
Leadership Meet” to policy making bodies as a part of Workshop on e-Governance to the State Government
Capacity Building scheme. The “e-Governance Officials, Public Sectors, e-Governance Heads in
Leadership Meet” aims to sensitize policy level personnel Government departments and senior decision makers in
for their support and commitment in taking e-Governance Chennai.
projects forward for integrated delivery of various A Block Levels Awareness Campaign will be
Government services to the citizens. Government of Tamil conducted in the four Districts (Coimbatore, Trichy, Vellore
Nadu has organized “e-Governance Leadership Meet” at and Tirunelveli) to the Community Based Organizations,
Chennai on 14/12/2012. Non-Governmental Organizations, Self-Help Groups,
students and citizens.
Communication Technology for improved public service India funded initiative to be established to help the public
reforms. The Awareness Campaign has been conducted on non emergency Government to Citizen (G2C) services
for 702 students studying in the Government Higher of various departments at the State Level as a pilot
Secondary Schools in 5 Districts (Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, project. While other channels of delivery are implemented
Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and The Nigiris Districts) at Block by various departments, this shall provide the advantage
of greater accessibility to the public due to high
47 48
penetration of telecom and mobile servies in rural parts CHAPTER – VI
through a single unique phone number. The Detailed
ICT ACADEMY OF TAMIL NADU
Project Report (DPR) has been submitted to Government
of India for obtaining approval for establishing Citizen
ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) is a joint
Contact Centre at Chennai. Government of India
initiative of Government of India, Government of Tamil
envisages funding the project for 3 years after which the
Nadu and Industries. ICTACT is a not for profit
State would have to operate Citizen Contact Centre at its
autonomous organization focusing to improve the quality
own cost.
of students graduating from various institutions in Tamil
Nadu, to make them industry ready and immediately
employable in the ICT industry. ICTACT is governed by an
autonomous Board of Governors with representations
from the State Government of Tamil Nadu and the leading
companies in the ICT industry. ICTACT is a pioneering
venture under the Public - Private - Partnership (PPP)
model that endeavours to train the higher education
teachers and students in the areas of Information &
Communication Technology, thereby making the students
industry ready.
49 50
¾ Trained 1352 Higher Education Faculty members With the objective of creating Indian-based Journals of
from 650 institutions in the State. International quality and to build up local research content,
¾ Conducted 70 Faculty Development Programmes. ICTACT Journals exist for the purpose of providing a
¾ Assessed and certified 3500 students on Basic quality peer-reviewed platform for Scientists, Researchers,
Computer Course (BCC) as approved by Academicians and Engineers who carry out their original
Government of India. research. In the year 2012, ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu
¾ Published 98 research articles in its 3 ICTACT has published 98 articles under its 3 international
International Research Journals. Journals. All ICTACT Journals have been indexed by
¾ Conducted 12 Technical Seminars (Power Index Copernicus TM, an online database of user-
Seminars) for students and conducted 12 contributed information with an Index Copernicus Value
Conferences & Conclaves for Academicians. (ICV) of 5.09.
¾ Training 5000 students in the Government Arts and
Science Colleges and Engineering Colleges on IT ICTACT CONFERENCES, CONCLAVES AND
Skills Employability through Tamil Nadu Skill SEMINARS
Development Mission. ¾ During 2012-13, ICT Academy has conducted 3
¾ Journal on Soft Computing power seminars for students in the year 2012-13.
53 54
So far, 13,409 candidates from 70 Countries 3. DIGITAL LIBRARY
have registered for different courses
Books on Literature, Commentaries, Dictionaries,
2,649 certificates, 29 higher certificates, 250
Tamil Technical Glossaries, Cultural and Suvadi (Palm
Diplomas and 135 Higher Diplomas and 132
Leaf) galleries are made available in the Digital Library of
Degrees were awarded.
Tamil Virtual Academy (TVA) website. This is expected to
These Academic Programmes are provided
benefit the students registered for various courses of TVA
through 59 Study Centres in 17 countries
and also for others.
worldwide.
CD’s for Primary, Basic, Intermediate and
4. TAMIL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
advanced level lessons, Learn Tamil,
Thirukural and Technical Glossary have The Tamil softwares developed under Tamil
been prepared and released for the benefit Software Development Fund (TSDF) are Tamil Optical
of students. Character Recognition (OCR), Tamil Handwriting,
In Virtual class room, lessons for learning Electronic Dictionary, Tamil Corpus Analysis and
Tamil and Video lectures for B.A. Tamilology Intelligent Information Retrieval of Thirukkural in Handheld
class are available. Devices. Predictive Text Software Design for Tamil is
Now, learning of French through Tamil under progress. Further, many Tamil Softwares are being
lectures is under progress. developed under TSDF.
All these are available in
http://www.youtube.com also.
55 56
5. STANDARD FONTS University, Thanjavur will be developed and hosted as,
”Tamil Nadu Database Website”, by Tamil Virtual
The Government of Tamil Nadu has declared
Academy. At present the Project is under progress with
Unicode and TACE-16 as its standards. Tamil Fonts and
the uploading of 52,690 palm leaf manuscripts given by
required Key Board Drivers are developed and made
Tamil University, Thanjavur.
available for free use by all.
About 2,50,000 technical terms compiled by various The Tamil Virtual Academy has set up a Tamil
Universities have been reviewed, grouped according to Computing Lab for providing a base for research and
the subjects and published in 14 volumes. Now Technical development of Tamil Softwares. Annotated corpus,
Glossary is released in CD form also. syntactically and semantically annotated corpus for Tamil
literature and an e-Dictionary are developed now.
7. TAMIL NADU DATABASE WEBSITE
57 58
CHAPTER – VIII On 30.8.2011, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil
Nadu had announced on the floor of the Assembly that
TAMIL NADU ARASU CABLE TV CORPORATION
Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation would provide
LIMITED (TACTV)
quality services at an affordable cost of Rs.70/- as monthly
subscription to the subscribers through the Cable TV
Arasu Cable TV Corporation was incorporated on
operators and Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation
04.10.2007 with the objective of providing high quality
would collect Rs.20/- per month per subscriber from the
cable TV signals to the public at an affordable cost. In cable Operators.
order to achieve this objective, 4 Digital Head Ends were
The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu launched
installed at Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Vellore.
the cable TV services all over Tamil Nadu (except
After assuming office in May 2011, the Hon’ble Chennai) on 02.09.2011 by switching-on the Head End at
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu revived the Arasu Cable Vellore through Video Conferencing. On 20.10.2012, the
TV Corporation which had become defunct due to various Hon’ble Chief Minister inaugurated the Cable TV Services
reasons and sanctioned a sum of Rs.3 Crores for the of TACTV in Chennai Metro.
59 60
It is evident from the fact that the subscriber base the interest of the public and Cable TV operators. Now
of TACTV Corporation which was 4.94 lakhs on TACTV Corporation is providing the cable TV services
02.09.2011 has risen to 61,54,531 on 31.03.2013 with an with most of the pay channels, at an affordable cost of
Operator base of 24,300. Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Rs.70/- per month, to the public through cable operators
Corporation is taking necessary steps to increase the and the public could save a sum of Rs.80 to Rs.180 per
subscriber base to One Crore. month. Therefore, the public have overwhelmingly
services with 90-100 Channels, including Free-to-Air Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd has
Channels, Pay Channels and Private Local Channels. The selected 1200 Private Local Channels and issued
Corporation has procured 137 Pay Channels and almost allotment orders, out of which approximately 800 Private
all the Pay Channels are in the bouquet of the Local Channels are running through TACTV.
Corporation.
Before TACTV’s arrival, the Cable TV sector was Inauguration of Cable TV Services in Chennai
totally unorganized and a few Multi System Operators had On 20.10.2012, the Hon’ble Chief Minister
created monopoly and thereby forced the local Cable TV inaugurated the Cable TV Services of TACTV in Chennai
operators as well as the public to pay exorbitant amount Metro. TACTV is now providing Analog Signal to the
towards cable TV services. Earlier, the public were paying Local Cable Operators in Chennai Metro Area and is
Rs.150 to Rs.250 per month to the private Cable TV taking necessary steps to provide Digital Signals also.
companies to avail the Cable TV service.
The Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd is
The service being provided by the TACTV
providing 100 channels with quality and clarity to the
Corporation is a welfare step taken by the Government, in
subscribers in Chennai Metro Area also through the Local
61 62
Cable Operators at an affordable cost of Rs.70/- per Room, purchase of Set Top Boxes, Conditional Access
month. System (CAS), Subscriber Management System (SMS)
and other items required for establishment of Control
Room at Chennai.
Digitalisation
In Chennai Metropolitan Area, 2,577 Local Cable
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting,
TV Operators with a subscriber base of around 14,66,336
Government of India, had issued MSO Licence to the
have registered online with TACTV, expressing their
Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation in the Conditional
willingness to join TACTV. 1223 Local Cable TV
Access System (CAS) areas of Chennai Metro. The
Operators have registered with TACTV requesting to
entire Cable TV Services in the Country are to be
supply the Set Top Boxes.
digitalized within a time frame i.e., by 31.12.2014 as per
the Cable TV Network Amendment Act, 2011. The TACTV Corporation will provide cable TV
services in Digital mode in Chennai Metro Area, as soon
In the first phase, four Metros including Chennai
as the Digital Addressable System (DAS) Licence is
were to be digitalized. TACTV Corporation has applied for
issued to TACTV.
MSO Licence for the DAS notified areas of Chennai Metro,
on 05.07.2012 and it is pending with the Ministry of
Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.
63 64
CHAPTER – IX and Government To Citizen (G2C) communications. It will
be an exclusive SMS Gateway established for use by
NEW SCHEMES FOR THE YEAR 2013-14 various Government departments for intra and inter
departmental communication. Initially, about 10 services of
Establishing a Tamil software incubation centre
Revenue (Certificates) and Social Welfare (Marriage
A Tamil software incubation centre, with all facilities assistance) Departments under e-District programme will
including Computer Hardware, Software and other tools be covered under this platform. Once the delivery platform
and services required for the development of Tamil is standardised, then departments can interface their e-
software will be established by Tamil Virtual Academy. services through this delivery platform. A sum of Rs.20
This centre will help research, experiment, develop and Lakhs has been allocated under Part II Scheme for the
reach out to the world with new Tamil softwares. A sum of year 2013-14 for implementing this scheme.
Rs.50 Lakhs has been allocated to Tamil Virtual Academy
under Part II Scheme for the year 2013-14 for Project Information Management System
implementing this scheme.
The Information Technology Department is the
facilitator for e-Governance initiatives of the State and it
Mobile Service Delivery Platform
plays an advisory role and in some cases, directly involves
Tamil Nadu is one of the most mobile penetrated in implementation of e-Governance projects across the
States. In order to deliver e-Services over multiple Departments. To monitor and control the project execution
channels and to leverage the high tele-density level in the at the higher level, a centralized Project Information
State, setting up Mobile Service Delivery Platform at the Management System is very much needed. This system
State level is essential. This will function as the official will facilitate State level planning, reporting to the State
SMS gateway for all Government To Government (G2G) and the Government of India and can be used for
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research etc. The proposed system will interface with the
existing systems available in the individual Departments
on a near real time basis wherever the software
application systems are available, otherwise to collect the
input from the users for reporting purpose. This application
will be hosted in the State Data Centre in a private cloud.
This architecture will provide easy accommodation and
integration with the system whenever new applications are
developed by individual departments. A sum of Rs.22
Lakhs has been allocated under Part II Scheme for the
year 2013-14 for implementing this scheme.
Mukkur N. Subramanian
Minister for Information Technology
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