It’s easy to forget that there are regions of the world that don’t have nearly the IT infrastructures and capabilities that exist in the United States and other developed countries. In these places, power fluctuations may be frequent or power may be nonexistent, temperatures and humidity soar in the absence of air conditioning and dust is everywhere. Computers need to withstand operating in such severe conditions.

These conditions were among the challenges the state government of West Bengal, India, faced when it began a project to update and improve its IT services as a way to enable government workers to better serve their constituents. AMD, in turn, took on these challenges as the company worked with government officials to improve their services through technology—within the government’s bounds of acquiring inexpensive yet reliable PCs that would function in rural areas.

Located in the eastern part of India and bordering Bangladesh, West Bengal is a state of outstanding natural beauty, exquisite lyrical poetry, intricate artistic traditions and the formidable Royal Bengal tiger.

It is also home to the world’s longest-serving democratically elected Communist government. With more than 80 million people packed into a total land area of 88,752 square kilometers (about the size of the state of Maine), agencies of the state government face challenges in delivering efficient and effective services to a largely rural populace. To help the administration be more responsive to the needs of citizens, the West Bengal government has adopted a two-pronged strategy: decentralization of governance and strengthening its information technology infrastructure.

Devolved Governance

Under the West Bengal Panchayat Act of 1973, the state runs a three-tier system of local rural government called Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The elected and appointed officials assigned to the PRIs are responsible for administering local affairs, running development projects and providing civil services.

The 18 districts in West Bengal are subdivided into 341 development blocks. The blocks, in turn, consist of Gram Panchayats (GPs), which are elected councils representing village clusters. The 3,354 GPs in West Bengal administer 37,910 villages—and collectively deliver services to more than 50 million rural citizens.

The GPs elect representatives to a second-tier body called the Panchayati Samiti (PS) at the block level. The 341 PSs, in turn, link the GPs to an apex organization at the district level called the Zilla Parishad (ZP). There are a total of 18 ZPs in the state of West Bengal.

The PRIs face several particular challenges in ministering to the needs and wants of rustic and poor constituents. Often short of self-generated resources, they rely on grants and funds from the federal and state governments to finance and operate developmental projects. This means that the PRIs need to carefully identify projects that are worth funding, ensure that development schemes are properly budgeted and effectively monitored, ensure that the intended beneficiaries receive the planned benefits and ensure that spending is free from waste and graft—often a concern in underdeveloped nations. 

The IT Challenge: Serving a Rural Populace

To help the PRIs execute their mission, the West Bengal State Rural Development Agency (WBSRDA) and the Department of Panchayat & Rural Development (PRD) have undertaken a series of rural computerization projects funded through a variety of federal and state programs. The two agencies and their consultants procure and install computers in villages, develop specialized software packages, provide rural connectivity and train staff to operate the equipment. The agencies have also developed a set of low-cost, customized software programs for thousands of users to provide rural decentralization, manage funds and accounts and collect information needed for social audits.

One software application is the Integrated Fund Monitoring and Accounting System (IFMAS), an accounting and budgeting system for PSs and ZPs. It helps monitor the usage of funds and grants and produces periodic reports for various government departments and funding agencies. Another software application is the Windows-based Gram Panchayat Management System (GPMS), which helps village-level officials with accounting and other statutory duties, such as implementation and monitoring of various poverty alleviation and social security programs, birth and death registration, issue of trade and other certificates, tax collection, management of local resources and creation of a GIS-based information bank to facilitate a people-centered planning process.

The custom software used by the government agencies runs on x86-compatible PCs in villages and small district towns. Many of the locations are hot and dusty, and some have only limited access to electricity. Availability of routine service and repair facilities is also a problem, because some locations are remote, with road access restricted in inclement weather. Consequently, the machines need to be highly reliable and robust.

Making a Choice

By July 2007, the PRD had already equipped more than half the PRIs in the state with at least one PC and had created the supporting infrastructure and software applications. Soon afterward, when the agency received more funds, it decided to procure additional hardware and initiated discussions with AMD and its India technology partners. According to Ranjit Kumar Maiti, joint secretary for the PRD and the head of the computerization cell at the WBSRDA, the agency’s overall goal is to provide at least three PCs to every GP and five or six machines in each block.

The WBSRDA invited several vendors to bid to provide the machines, and each participated in a technical review. For the performance evaluation process, AMD worked with its technology partners to provide the PRD and its technical consultants with a test machine and reference materials. AMD also educated the technical staff at the WBSRDA about the benefits of the AMD architecture. The test machine was equipped with an AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core processor, CPU Model 5200+ running at 2.7 GHz, dual-channel 512-MB DDR2 SDRAM at 533 MHz, 160-GB SATA hard disk drive, integrated graphics and sound, and Windows XP. It was benchmarked against two competing machines.

After the evaluation was complete, AMD technology partner Dell Inc. was awarded an order for more than 500 machines. Then in December 2007, the department placed another order for more than 300 PCs with AMD technology partner HCL Ltd. The PRD subsequently decided to buy more than 75 Dell PCs for its own use, as well, according to AMD.

Commenting on the hardware selection process, Maiti says, “This was an open bid, and the best vendor was chosen after rigorous technical and financial evaluation. Definitely, price was a major factor in our decision-making. In choosing AMD-processor-based machines, we saved a lot of money—which was used to buy extra hardware, peripherals and licensed software for the PRIs. And we also saw an opportunity to save money on technology upgrades. We found that the AMD motherboards would support upcoming chips for at least three more years.”

A Bright Future

Deepanshu Sharma, general manager of Marketing, Strategy and ISV Alliances for AMD India, says the PRD department is so pleased with AMD-processor-based machines that AMD technology partners have a good chance of securing additional orders in the coming months.

“The success of our projects has encouraged other departments to seek additional budgets for ICT initiatives such as mobile governance and desktops for the e-Bharat initiative,” says Maiti.

e-Bharat is a project funded by the federal government (Union Ministry of Information Technology) under the National e-Governance Action Plan (NeGAP) to empower the 600,000 villages in India. The mission is to provide direct technology and Internet access to the villages through 100,000 specially designed, PC-powered multipurpose kiosks. e-Bharat would give rural villagers access to services such as e-learning, e-training, e-teaching, e-health, telemedicine, e-farming, e-tourism, e-entertainment and e-commerce.

Maiti looks forward to a productive technology partnership with AMD, and he says he would like the company to provide his agency with regular technical advice and work more closely on mutually beneficial projects: “We would like our technology partners to keep us updated on technological advances and build a win-win partnership for the benefit of the citizens of West Bengal.”

Sharma says he is eager to assist. “When we provide technological updates to our customers, it works in favor of AMD. That’s because it makes the customers aware of the latest international trends. The West Bengal government, with its forward-looking strategies, is a great organization to partner with,” says Sharma.

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