THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Along with South Korea and Afghanistan, Kerala will be recognised by World Bank for M-governance activities.A case study will be published in the 2012 edition of Bank’s publication. The M-governance activities undertaken by the Kerala IT Mission is considered as one of the best practices in the world. The case study will be part of a chapter in the publication ‘ICT4D 2012,’ which reflects the newest trends and best practices in information and communications technologies for development. The publication is being brought out by the Information and Communication Technologies unit of World Bank. The last version of the publication was brought out in 2009. Kerala IT Mission director Shajahan said that a communique in this regard had been received at Kerala IT Mission. The theme of the 2012 edition is ‘mobiles for development’ and it will be published in March 2012.The last chapter in the book will be on ‘making government mobile.’ As the title suggests, the focus is on the necessity and methods the governments should adopt to utilise the mobile technology to improve public service delivery, strengthen programme efficiency and improve transparency and accountability. Three best case studies in the world had been selected and highlights the best and emerging next practice in South Korea, Kerala, and Afghanistan. Kerala was selected considering the information provided to the people through mobile phones free of cost. Usually, information is passed on to customers by mobile phone companies who charge them for their services. The content of Kerala IT Mission is owned by the government and using the existing infrastructure it is shared with the public. In recent years, mobile phones have become the most ubiquitous communication device worldwide, with higher penetration rates than the internet. According to TRAI, the teledensity in Kerala is 97.3 per cent compared to national average of 73.11 per cent. The M-Governance was successful in Kerala due to the higher percentage of teledensity and it is expected to reach 100 per cent this last financial quarter.The project ‘M-Governance in Kerala’ is a comprehensive project covering more than 60 government departments and is aimed to utilise the advancements in mobile technology for developing cost-effective, efficient and round-the-clock government information systems in these departments.
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