As promised in this part we will further look at GSWAN.(To read first part of article click here)

Usage of GSWAN:

1. GSWAN is mainly used for Internet access in various Govt. Offices. Access policy is defined as per the rank of the Govt official. It has mainly two categories like intranet user and internet user. Username is created by the post and department combination, almost no username by personal name. Main users are at state level head quarter (in Gandhinagar Sachivalya), while there is also users configured at district, Taluka and village level.
2. Usage is strictly monitored at control center. Day to day reporting mechanism is there. If any user even at Taluka level found to be using internet bandwidth very high, it is immediately informed to respective office head and appropriate action taken. If anyone found to be downloading anything big, it is immediately informed.
3. Daily bandwidth usage, top users, top downloading user, downtime everything is monitored as per SLA. SLA has been defined in 2001 itself and strictly followed by the vendor till date.
4. There is VoIP phone policy there. Offices at Taluka levels instructed to use maximum VoIP phones, as it is totally free.
5. There is a redundancy in each and everything, so that in the event of failure network is not affected. This network has used cat 5/6, optical, wireless, JFC every available options to connect each district, Taluka and village.
6. There is a common data center for almost all the departments. Recently new data center has been created with maintaining international standards.

Benefits of GSWAN:

1. Taluka level user can log in to his departmental website and can upload the data. So now no more daily/weekly/fortnightly trip required to go District Headquarter.
2. Earlier Information and Broadcasting (Mahiti) department needs to send the event tapes/recordings to state headquarter frequently, now they simply upload the same through network from anywhere in the state. You can also visit www.gujaratinformation.net for the same. There is section of Rajkot, Gandhinagar,Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedbad and Gandhinagar news, which updates daily at around 6PM. There is also download section from where you can download pdf files of GUJARAT magazine, Rojgar Samachar etc.
3. Various departmental applications are hosted on the network. So different user can directly upload the data into website from anywhere. Example of the same can be IWDMS, SWAGAT, HMIS, IFMS etc. Each we will cover in coming series.
4. Every Government events at village level or at anywhere can be live webcasted on internet now using GSWAN, and it has been done through last 2-3 years very effectively. You can view the same by going www.gswan.gov.in (enable pop-up), there is notification of webcasting event.
5. Video conferencing-my favorite, is now extensively used in day to day use. Each working day there is 3-4 VC scheduled by various departments from Gandhinagar to District and Taluka Level. There is one VC hall developed at each District and Taluka level. While in Gandhinagar there are multiple VC halls developed with one main center.
6. You might have seen or heard about Modi’s America Visa issue. When this issue was arisen, GSWAN come to the way, CM had given his speech as well as QNA session through videoconferencing. Same has been continued till date for overseas conference specially in US.

Evaluation of GSWAN:

*operational in 2001, VoIP is there from starting. Started video conferencing from 2003 onwards from once Narmada-Sabarmati water Sangam during oct-2003. VC has been used exensively in Krishi-Mahotsav started from May-2005. Webcasting has been started somewhere around 2004.

Personal Experiences with this GSWAN:

I have started my career with this network, So there are so many memories associated with it.

1. During 2004, the founder of this network Mr R K Dave used to inspect data center for proper maintenance. He has used his hand to rub from one server and with same hand he had tapped on the manager in charge of data center. There was a dust in his hand he has washed it with manager’s shirt in lighter mood and instructed him to be more careful regarding cleanliness of data center.
2. He was a pure technical guy at the age of his fifties; no vendor can make him fool regarding reporting and downtime. I used to learn lessons from him. There was a one more purely technical and managerial guy, who used to mange each and every Govt Functions successfully till last may-2009 starting from 2001. His name is Mr Uday Desai, who is the co-founder and key person almost till date.
3. I have travelled through whole Saurashtra region thrice, north Gujarat and central Gujarat for official purpose, for Video Conferencing or Computer Hardware inspection etc. During that there are so many incidents which I will cover in coming posts.
4. I had talked with district collectors, DDOs, Talati and villagers regarding VCs and other events, there were some bitter experience also while talking with higher rank officials, but ultimately it was really nice experiences.
5. There is strange scenario in Gujarat Government now, there is no major large scale recruitments in last 15 years, current employees average age is more than 50, their mentality is like that “we have many less years of service left, why should we learn computers or use it in daily use”. Still there are so many officials who are active and they want to learn more and more new things.
6. There are so many officials there who are happy with current developments, as they are getting chance to perform more and more. They use technology more and more in routine work.

Some Extra-curricular points:

1. GSWAN has used totally CISCO switches, routers etc. There is no match of such network in the India at such a large scale, even in developed countries there is no internet connectivity in village level.
2. In proposed plan, there is scope to make individual village website for all the villages in Gujarat.
3. There is a district website available in today’s date, from where you can get all the information regarding particular district, schemes available, downloadable forms for the same, geographic and population details and much much more. For example simply visit http://ahmedabaddp.gujarat.gov.in/ahmedabad/ , http://dst.gujarat.gov.in/ for more details

Concluding this part-II, I still feel that there is something missing as there are so many things related with GSWAN. But here we ends GSWAN. Wait for more articles in this series. For more information and queries, you can contact me on himanshu.acharya@gmail.com or can visit hims30482.blogspot.com