eGov’s journey with Kerala started in Kozhikode in 2018. The DIGIT Online Building Plan Approval System (OBPAS) system was used to develop Suvega, Kozhikode Municipality’s Building Plan Approval system.

In February 2021, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM), with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) as the Nodal Agency. The objective includes supporting states in implementing integrated e-governance and digital delivery of municipal services to citizens. For this program, eGov’s DIGIT platform was selected as the core platform and named UPYOG – Urban Platform for delivery of Online Governance, on which states can build and customize solutions as per their need.

In June 2022, the Information Kerala Mission (IKM), signed an MoU with NIUA for UPYOG implementation. IKM is utilising UPYOG to develop its own urban digital governance solution under Kerala Solution for Managing Administrative Reformation and Transformation (K-SMART).

In Kerala’s journey of successfully developing K-SMART, eGov has played a supporting role since its inception. As a starter, a four-day training workshop was organised in July 2022. The workshop focused on familiarising the IKM team with DIGIT architecture, DevOps and CI/CD Setup, DIGIT Configurations, Local Setup and Automation testing. By the end of the training, the team was able to deploy the Trade Licence module and run it in their Dev environment.

From here, eGov was in constant contact with the Kerala team for the initial period through a daily virtual session for query resolution. The IKM team visited eGov in August for a three-day long session on troubleshooting assistance. Further, eGov was able to support in Payment Integration, Configuration of Database, SMS Configuration, Birth and Death Module Setup and Loading Master Data.

With less than a year of work, IKM launched K-SMART in 8 pilot ULBs with two modules- Trade License, Birth & Death Registration. IKM is planning to roll out the two modules across state, tentatively in April ’23. In the second phase, Finance & Accounting, Property Tax and Building Permit Modules are going to be implemented.

In January 2023, eGov, with the help of IKM, conducted a field study to understand the baseline reality of Kerala Municipal Governance before K-SMART was implemented. This exercise is planned as a part of a mixed method difference-in-differences study, which aims at empirically understanding the impact of K-SMART on the Municipal Governance systems of the state. For this, 8 ULBs were selected based on various limiting parameters, such as Geography, Population, Area, Type of ULB and logistical convenience.

The findings of the study are being analysed and put into a report, to be published soon. The analysis of data from the report will help us quantify the impact of K-SMART, especially in matters of: Ease of Acess to Citizens, Ease of Working for Employees, Impact on ULB revenue, Impact on Citizen Awareness and Impact on SLA compliance. This study is part of the larger Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) effort that eGov is developing. eGov has developed a Theory of Change and Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for its Urban Mission. The framework will utilise data from the DIGIT database and field to compile, analyse, track and comprehend the impact of Urban Mission. This exercise, at immense, helps in, quantifying the impact, offers paths for learning and improvements, can uncover any blind spots/missed opportunities in the project and builds trust among the stakeholders.

Additionally, eGov is in conversation with IKM on enabling the K-SMART team in Monitoring and Evaluation capabilities. As it is said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”, eGov strongly believes that a rigorous M&E system is crucial to measure the impact of the e-governance system and for implementing and managing societal changes at scale.

In conclusion, the collaboration between eGov and Kerala is multi-faceted and symbiotic, that includes resource sharing, capacity building, information exchange and skill development. These interactions have been beneficial for both parties in their respective growth and development.

This symposium marked a significant milestone in eGov’s partnership with academia and other organizations dedicated to addressing water supply challenges in rural areas. By fostering collaboration, sharing knowledge, and pooling resources, the event provided hope and inspiration for future endeavors that will positively impact the lives of those who rely on rural drinking water systems.