SAP Brings Technology to the Grama Panchayats in India

SAP India announced that it will continue efforts to enable public sector organizations in India to run more efficiently and effectively through its vision to enable technology transformation at the grassroots level. SAP announced its first “e-Enabling Grama Panchayat,” with collaboration at Soda village, Rajasthan, headed by Chhavi Rajawat, India's only sarpanch with an MBA. As a part of this initiative, SAP will also set up a computer lab to foster basic computer literacy among the villagers. The announcement was made at SAP World Tour 2011, being held August 26 in New Delhi, India.

By providing e-governance in the local administrative offices at rural Soda village, SAP strives to build an integrated social, cultural and political foundation. The company is in the process of understanding and re-engineering the sarpanch functions in order to better know the scope of the delivery of citizen services, like birth, marriage and death certificates, and automation of records management for better visibility on budgets, revenues, application of funds for projects and similar functions of the panchayat, among others.

“The ability and ease of access to right information on time can impact the feasibility of improving the socio-economic class in India”, said Rajawat. “We are very pleased to collaborate with SAP to embark the beginning of our digital liberation journey to deliver good governance which is the right of every citizen in this country.”

Project Lakshya is a programme designed to impart basic computer literacy on 100,000 underprivileged youth across India by the end of 2011. As a part of the project, SAP, along with implementation and NGO partner, will set up a computer lab at Soda village. The lab will be well equipped with computers preloaded with easy-to-use software, and will act as a hub to provide basic computer literacy to the villagers. Additionally, SAP will provide all the necessary infrastructure and technology expertise and manage the operational costs, such as electricity or solar panels, teachers, trainers and more, as required.

“At SAP, we are focused on getting rural India access to citizen services and an administration that is transparent and accountable,” said Peter Gartenberg, Managing Director, SAP India. “We have brought that same focus to Soda village; our efforts are to partner on long-term economic development, creating enduring prosperity for the common man.”

“We believe that technology will fulfil the changing needs of citizens, while helping governments to standardize and manage their services and develop the economy,” said Adaire Fox-Martin, Head-Industry and Solutions Group, SAP Asia Pacific Japan. “SAP has reaffirmed its commitment to developing more efficient technologies for our customers in public sector undertakings, helping them to improve processes and public administrations, provide greater transparency and quicker decision-making, and in turn helping them create better communities.”

With more than 1,250 public sector organizations spread across 70 countries, SAP continues to make commitments to the public sector industry. The company has developed an extensive software portfolio to manage the comprehensive processes and transform operations at all levels in order to help governments serve citizens better.