All Things 'E' in the Budget

All Things ‘E’ in the Budget is a The Hindu report published on 15 March 2015 by Bageshree S. The article examines Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s 2015–16 budget, which proposed over 30 technology-based initiatives across agriculture, healthcare, education, culture and governance.

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Article Details

📰 Published in:: The Hindu
📅 Date:: 15 March 2015
👤 Authors:: Bageshree S.
📍 Location:: Bengaluru
📄 Type:: News Report
📰 Newspaper Link:: Read Online (Subscription required)

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Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may not carry a tech-savvy image, but the 10th budget he presented on Friday is peppered with tech-based projects. Spread across sectors from agriculture and revenue to education and culture, they number well over 30.

While the budget proposes to set up digital library and decision support system for scientific watershed management under the head of agriculture, it sets aside Rs. 10 crore to fit ear-rings with unique identification (UID) to cattle to track services provided to them.

There are tech-based projects in education and health sectors too.

"Tele" appears to be a pet prefix for many projects, with promise of push for tele-radiology, tele-medicine and tele-education for schools in association with IIM-B. There is a special emphasis on e-learning (alongside spoken English) under Social Welfare head for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes, and minority students.

An e-hospital software is to be used to document health information of patients in government hospitals, and e-linking between ultrasound scanning centres and Health Department is proposed to prevent female foeticide.

Unusually, Kannada and Culture head too has a tech-touch this time with Rs. 2 crore for developing online encyclopaedia 'Kanaja' and a proposal to hold virtual Kannada classes.

Proposals under the Revenue head are particularly noteworthy with five tech-based projects proposed "to achieve transparency, simplification of revenue administration and to make access of services to public easy".

The budget proposes computerised grievance redressal for electricity-related complaints of consumers and even new software to purchase sand online.

Key issues

Connectivity, power supply and maintenance may be keys to ensure these initiatives work on the ground, and Karnataka's mixed experience with initiatives such as Mahiti Sindhu (computer-based education) is a case in point. However, experts feel that mainstreaming of technology is a good move.

"The best approach will be to provide market incentives to the private sector, especially start-ups, while simultaneously protecting the public interest via mandates for free/open source software, open standards, open content, open data etc. in the publicly funded projects as is the case internationally," said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society.

Context and Background

The article was published following the presentation of Karnataka’s 2015–16 State Budget by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The budget proposed a wide range of technology-based initiatives across multiple departments, reflecting the growing incorporation of digital systems into state-level administration and service delivery.

These proposals included the use of information systems in agriculture, healthcare, education, social welfare, revenue administration and cultural promotion. The initiatives were framed within the budget as measures to improve access to services, documentation, monitoring and transparency.

The report also reflects concerns about the practical conditions required for such initiatives to function effectively, including connectivity, power supply and maintenance. Reference to earlier programmes such as Mahiti Sindhu underscored the relevance of these constraints.

Expert commentary quoted in the article highlighted policy considerations around the use of software and standards in publicly funded projects, situating the budget proposals within ongoing discussions about technology choices in government programmes.