The Indian Express         27.11.2013

AMC school board goes tech-savvy, e-mails set to replace postal mails

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation School board opened email accounts for 456 of its school heads on Monday even as the Internet facility is yet to reach these schools. According to the authorities, the e-mail scheme has been launched for real-time communication in place of postal mails or sending and receiving information by hand. Apart from routine matters, circulars and policy documents will also be communicated through e-mails. "In recent years, we have witnessed a lot of communication gap as relevant information could not reach schools or vice versa on time. With this service, all school heads and teachers will have instant information released from the school board," said AMC school board chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.

However, it remains to be seen how many takers will the proposal have as few school heads are Internet-savvy and can access e-mails. "Leave alone heads, I am not sure how many students in our school know how to use Internet as we hardly have this facility in our school. The students in municipal schools are from economically weaker sections who hardly have computers or Internet at home," revealed a school head at the municipal school in Vadaj.

With an aim to make its staff, teachers and students computer-savvy, AMC school board had launched its official website last year. Though the website's pages are still being developed, it started by uploading important announcements by the board and Education Department.

With the introduction of Computer Science as a subject since previous academic session, it was proposed to connect all schools to Internet. "Shala Telephone Internet Vayudoot Suvidha" was launched to provide Internet to all municipal schools. The project was aimed at keeping students abreast with Internet and technology updates. The move is being seen as an attempt to compete with private schools. However, there are questions being raised on the validity of the move as several municipal schools lack even the basic infrastructure.

The Times of India            25.11.2013

Face recognition device to mark attendance of Thane Municipal Corporation staff

THANE: The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) is planning a face recognition device as part of the biometric attendance system to ensure better accountability of civic officials.

If sources are to be believed, then the TMC will be the first civic body to install this kind of technology in its day-to-day functioning.

The decision comes on the backdrop of various complaints of manipulation in the thumb biometric machine among civic officials of various rankings.

The installation will take place in two phases. The civic body has invited bids for the same and the system may be installed in December, said a TMC source.

The budget for this face recognition attendance system is pegged at around Rs 10 lakh. -Nishikant Karlikar

The face recognition biometric attendance systems will keep track of the entry and exit time of every employee, and will help to mitigate false attendance or tampering the thumb machines.

In the first phase, 17 units will be installed at the TMC headquarters in Panchpakhadi and the nine ward offices. If it is successful, other civic buildings will also install the machines.

The new system aims at registering the attendance of TMC employees with face recognition devices. This is expected to improve delivery of various services to offices having public interface. A TMC source said, "Presently, the TMC thumb biometric machines installed in various departments of TMC to register the daily attendance however, it has come to our notice that the present system of thumb impression has been tampered by some of the employees and has been misused hence, the decision of installing the face recognition devices had been taken up."

The TMC has also invited bids who will help them to install the system that will capture the images of the employees along with the other related software that will unable to bring in transparency in the working of TMC. The TMC is technical specification which shall have face recognition based attendance machines with Sim connectivity in addition to the attendance mgmt. software with installation, configuration & support.

Once the system is installed, any staff member who comes in front of the machine the device collects and consolidates data and recognises the retina of eye and face structure and marks the attendance.

The source added that the device will be sim based and will be complete wireless connectivity this will unable the civic staff to carry it anywhere in their building and there will be cent percent accuracy.

Also, there shall be three years comprehensive warranty on the technology which will be with the service provider. The budget of the implementation shall be roughly around Rs 10 lakh and could possibly be installed in the month of December.