IT vaccine for fast remedies in far-off corners

JAIPUR, INDIA: An Interview with Shri Naveen Kumar, Technical Director, National Informatics Centre who has joined six months back on deputation in NICSI as General Manager, gives us an understanding of IT's novel shots in untouched sectors. Incidentally, he was the National Project Director for National Animal Disease Reporting System (NADRS) which is a sponsored project of Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.

The NADRS project has made a lot of noise this year. Give us a brief peek here.

Basically it is a project of Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries that got approval in 2010. The idea was to implement a solution at block level and that meant veterinary dispensaries and hospitals across the country. In terms of IT's role, it meant that tendering of software and hardware was done well, providing SAT to each level (and that included a PC, a mono laser printer, 500 VA online UPS and other paraphernalia) and taking care of networking. I was the project co-coordinator of this team of 16 to 17 people. The DADF was finding it difficult to obtain a picture of the state of animal health in the country that would be both timely as well as complete. Not only did this hinder effective policy-making regarding animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries, but it also resulted in livestock owners having to opt for expensive veterinary treatment because of the delay incurred.

For something of that scale and ambition, wasn't last-mile connectivity a big pothole?

BSNL was chosen due to its strong penetration compared to other options, especially in remote areas, where connections are not stable. The goal was to report diseases from block level veterinary units so that top-level people in this function can take quick and appropriate decisions. That entailed four to five modules - a web based animal disease reporting system, a NADRS portal, SMS-based interface, block-level MIS etc. Before the project happened, the scenario was overwhelmed with a piece-meal approach. Now we have put a central server and a DR site. We are using CRM technology that spans 7032users with roles as per their work. In case of outbreaks, central level can now notify all spots in time. It covers daily incidence disease reporting, outbreak reporting for preventive and corrective actions.

How did the deployment go?

It was proposed to introduce a computerized system of animal disease reporting, linking each Taluka/ block, district and state headquarters to a central disease reporting and monitoring unit at the department of animal husbandry, dairying & fisheries (DADF), Ministry of Agriculture in New Delhi. To achieve this, the DADF, Ministry of Agriculture sponsored the National Animal Disease Reporting System (NADRS), which is being implemented through the National Informatics Centre with the support of state/UT departments of animal husbandry and veterinary services.

NADRS aims at effective monitoring of the occurrence of livestock diseases, with a view to enable their early control, which will result in improving the livestock health in the country. NADRS involves establishment of ICT infrastructure and networking of 7032 nodes linking each block, district and state/UT headquarters to the central disease reporting & monitoring unit (CPMU) at DADF in New Delhi. All the notifiable diseases scheduled in the `The Prevention and Control of Infectious & Contagious Diseases in Animals Act 2009' are included in the reporting system.

A nationwide network of nodes was set up that would allow for much faster reporting of diseases (and subsequently action if any needed). Disease reporting was enabled by three channels: web, e-mail and SMS. Very high-end servers were set up at the main site in Hyderabad, accompanied by a smaller-scale DR/BCP site at Pune. Medium-end servers were deployed at the state/UT level.

What other challenges you overcame? How is the scenario now?

Initially, sending hardware to remote locations was also tough due to lack of details for far-off doctors. That took some time. Also capacity-building and training of block-level officers in areas like initial computer operations etc was an issue to address. We engaged NIIT for training and about 6027 veterinary doctors were provided training on basic computer operations. The project has helped to gain a more accurate and timely picture of any possible disease outbreaks. Soon after the launch of the project, an instance of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) was detected and the necessary preventive actions to contain further spread were carried out.

Like what you had outlined and expected at the onset?

This reporting system enables the block, district and state animal health officials and livestock farmers to report the disease through web-based interface, SMS and e-mail. The system will facilitate rendering of reports via the Internet and will support smoothening of the monitoring mechanism carried out after the reporting of an outbreak disease, which will help in saving time and economic losses to farmers and the country, thereby yielding immediate benefits to the livestock owners and to the economy by way of better health status of animals, prevention of losses due to their morbidity and mortality and improvement in the quality of their products.

The system has been designed so as to ensure secure data transfer and confidentiality of information. At the apex level, NADRS will compile and generate animal disease information for the country. The users will have access to the information as per permissions in consonance with their role and responsibilities envisaged under the system. This computerized system will enable fuller and timely reporting of the animal disease situation in the country, enabling its effective management.

What did the comparison points look like?

In the manual system, animal disease reporting was not satisfactory because the disease reporting was neither timely nor complete. As a result of reliance on postal means of communication, reports and returns took considerable time and some were also lost in transit. Hence, the compiled information did not represent the true picture of the disease situation at any given point of time. Many incidences of animal diseases remained out of the reporting system.

Any future applications that you can use to extend this infrastructure?

We are thinking of Business Intelligence as of now so that outbreak monitoring and action is made stronger and evacuation measures are better equipped. On the whole, we have big plans for the strengthening of the NADRS in the 12th five year plan. Some major activities to be performed under NADRS during the 12th five year plan are : Networking of Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratories (ADDLs) and workflow software system (978 nodes); development of Disease Intelligence System (DIS); GIS-based decision support system; MIS & workflow application software development

and NADRS portal development & content generation, localisation etc.