
Santhosh Babu leads some of Kerala government’s key projects. He is the MD of Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) and Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd, CMD of Information Kerala Mission, and heads the Work Near Home project.
A doctor-turnedIAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, he took voluntary retirement while serving as the IT principal secretary with Tamil Nadu in 2020 and joined Kamal Haasan’s party Makkal Needhi Maiam.
In 2021, he joined the Kerala government in the rank of principal secretary. In an interaction with TNIE, Santhosh details the status of various initiatives including free internet to BPL families (via KFON) and mobile app-based government services (K-SMART).
Excerpts
The state government’s declaration of the internet as a basic right made headlines. Can you tell us the context of that move and the status of the free internet connection project?
Kerala was one of the first states in the country to announce the internet as a basic right to its citizens. Other countries, such as Finland, have made the internet a basic right. Food, shelter, clothing, and bandwidth are the new norm. We can’t live without these four now.
That was an important announcement by the government because, if you take mobile phones, Kerala is deeply connected. There is 104% connectivity here. But If you look at the number of families who have fibre connectivity, it’s somewhere around 20%.
We have Airtel, BSNL, Jio, Asianet, etc, and yet have covered only 20 lakh families out of a total of 85 lakh. So, from purely a market perspective, it’s a big market and a big opportunity. And two, all these people require fibre connectivity.
What’s the total number of KFON connections given so far, including BPL, commercial connections, and institutions?
We have reached 76,000 connections. We have connected all government institutions – 30,438. The balance are all private homes, around 51,000. Our target is to give 1 lakh connections by March this year, inclusive of commercial, BPL, and institutions.
Why should a person get a KFON connection when other private players are offering the same service?
This is a public choice theory service. Everybody is there in the market. People can choose, and why should they come to us? If I don’t maintain an SLA (a contract between an internet service provider and a customer that defines the expected quality of internet service), nobody would come to me. We offer an SLA of 99.9%. (which means the service is expected to be available at least 99.9% of the time).
That’s the industry standard. Airtel, Jio, and other private players offer 99.9%. If I don’t maintain that, we are finished. We have 68 teams, each team has five persons and a vehicle, who are patrolling. If there’s any service disruption, they will ensure speedy restoration. We are not compromising on the quality of service. All 76,000 connections are running without any service disruption.
Why should the state government be in a sector with cut-throat competition from private players?
That’s a policy decision by the government. We are on par with any ISP because it’s stable. We are providing our service to the secretariat, Kerala assembly, collectorates, and all government offices run on KFON connection. But there are 1 lakh plus government offices in Kerala. That’s another opportunity that awaits me. We are providing the full bouquet of services, including leased lines that others are providing, except IPTV (internet protocol TV) and OTT. For IPTV and OTT, we have received the board’s approval, and we will apply for the licence.
You have connected most of the government offices and institutions. Has the government worked out the benefits received and the expenses saved because of KFON?
I have visited 30-40 panchayat offices and found that they have 5-6 internet connections, which is mind-boggling. The entire government runs on e-office, and the panchayat uses several software applications like K-SMART (Kerala Solutions for Managing Administrative Reformation and Transformation), making downtime unacceptable. I have written to the government, stating that KFON needs to be the primary connection. They can have a secondary connection for safety, but our ring architecture ensures almost zero downtime. We prioritise redundancy, which is an advantage KFON offers.
Do government offices pay KFON for the service?
My regret is that government offices are utilising our services without paying. I’ve informed the government about the significant investment of nearly Rs 1,000 crore and the need for a return on investment. I’m not seeking a monopoly, but I believe KFON should be the primary connection. The issue is that government offices assumed KFON would be free and they’ve been paying for other connections by other companies. They need to pay us, and it’s pending since October 2023. Initially, the government agreed to support us directly from the budget, with an expected budgetary support of Rs 250 crore. However, the finance secretary decided not to pay from the budget and asked me to bill consumers and institutions individually.
How much is pending?
As of now, we have to get around Rs 30 crore from the government. Going forward, I think it’s going to increase because various government institutions have taken internet lease lines. If I am going to replace it, there will be more revenue.
Have government institutions disconnected private internet lines?
They have started disconnecting private lines. But sometimes they say they want a secondary connection because they cannot afford to have only one connection. There’s a committee chaired by the IT secretary, of which I am a member. Mostly, we agree.
There was a proposal to provide free Wi-Fi in public spaces. What’s the status now?
We have submitted a proposal for Wi-Fi in public spaces. It’s called KFi. There’s another proposal – KSWAN (Kerala State Wide Area Network)-KFON integration. These proposals are pending with the government. The IT Mission has provided free Wi-Fi in 2,000 locations. It has been pretty successful. We are now proposing to spread it to 4,008 locations. We are awaiting government clearance, and once it comes, all public spaces in Kerala will have free Wi-Fi.
Are you in a position to give on-demand connections?
Yes. We have the KFON app on phones, KFON on the website, and a toll-free number. These three are the methods to reach us. We have a 24x7 call centre too. We are providing connections on demand.
What’s the status of K-SMART which ensures hassle-free issuance of certificates?
K-SMART is a mobile app-based e-governance system for local bodies in Kerala. It aims to provide a variety of services to citizens through an online platform. We launched K-SMART on January 1, 2024, in Kochi. There were initial hiccups. If you take buildings, the data was an enormous 200 crore records, which we had to move to digital. We made some miscalculations and took the job lightly. By the time we upload 50 crore records, there will be technical issues and we have to rework.
From January 1, 2025, we have launched K-SMART in panchayats. My personal vision for K-SMART is that everything should happen over mobile phones and nobody should be made to visit government offices. No citizen should ever visit a government office. What we offer is ‘joyful citizens, joyful employees, and efficient government’. Now, marriage certificates can be downloaded through the app. Birth certificates will be issued within six minutes while death certificates in around 10 minutes.
How many local bodies have come on board for the e-services?
From April 1, this will be implemented in 941 grama panchayats, 152 block panchayats, and 14 district panchayats. All activities in local bodies will be on K-SMART. At Karakulam, on the third minute of a marriage, the marriage certificate was handed over by the minister to the couple on stage. My target is to have certificates issued before people ask for them. That’s what I mean by predictive governance.
We have so much data with us. Our governance is file-based. If a person has any requirement, they have to visit each department concerned, where his petition will be filed. Currently, K-SMART is data-centric. But it can be human-centric. The activities linked to each department can be easily accessed. For us, technology-wise, it is not a challenge. But our problem is that we are all in silos. If we break these silos, we will be at the next level of governance. K-SMART can power that change. We can bring everything to one platform.
How connected are we compared to Singapore or Malaysia?
I stayed in Singapore for a year. They have an integrated system. In our country, at any point in time, there will be some kind of survey taking place. So, there are several persons of the same name in the database. But there is no mechanism to uniquely identify a person. This is an essential problem of governance. Now, the name of a person is written in different ways at various departments.
To overcome that, when I was in Tamil Nadu, a government order was issued for family-based data. In this, we ordered that one mother department will identify a person uniquely. Other departments can only add metadata about the person. So, all the personal details of a person can be kept constant. It can be linked to an Aadhaar card or other unique number. Other details can be added further. This is not done in Kerala, and India. This is a huge area that needs reforms.
Is there any resistance from the part of government employees against these reforms?
In the initial stages of K-SMART, there was confusion among government employees. They were never used to it. Our panchayats are computerised but urban local bodies aren’t. There were connectivity issues. But those simple issues are over. Now, they find it very easy for them and consider it a productivity tool. What took three hours earlier now takes three seconds. So the volume of work is coming down. But my personal feeling is that the time has come to upgrade the skills of employees. Earlier, we had typists. But now we are all typists. As there is no requirement for typists now, it doesn’t mean that people have gone out of job. We need higher levels of skills. As AI comes in, the skill set of people will improve, and nobody will lose their jobs.
Where do Kerala and Tamil Nadu now stand regarding the implementation of citizen services? What’s Kerala’s strength?
As far as citizen services are concerned, Kerala is No. 1, no doubt about that. Around 900 services are online. When our former chief secretary V P Joy sir assumed office, he pushed the e-office a lot. He also promoted e-sevanam, a bouquet of services of all government departments. But ideally, one should be directed to other websites as well. That facility is not there at present. That’s a disadvantage of e-sevanam. If you are a citizen in Kerala, you can go to e-sevanam and log in. If there are 10 departments, you have to log in 10 times on different websites. There should be a facility to go to any department with a single sign-in. That’s what we’re providing through K-SMART. In Tamil Nadu, not many services are online compared to Kerala.
Where does Tamil Nadu excel?
I was in charge of the system that works on the lines of KFON in Tamil Nadu. There, the project is called Bharat Net. That’s still at the halfway stage in terms of connectivity. Coming to areas where Tamil Nadu excels, the land allotment process is much faster there.
And compared to other states of India?
Nowhere in the country is it as extensive as it is in Kerala. Here, right up to the panchayat office, all have been turned into e-offices. That’s a big advantage.
In the future, do you see just one card for a citizen, instead of separate cards for Aadhaar, PAN, voter ID, etc?
What I say is that it’s the people who give us the salary. And they have to stand for hours before us to get the services. That shouldn’t occur. That’s a paradox in governance. That’s the British style. Every government office should become a back office. There’s no need to even reveal the name of the government office. That’s my concept. In offices like Microsoft and Facebook, I have visited their back offices which are massive. But we see only the front office. We don’t deal with the back offices at all. Why should we deal with the back office? It is when we deal with such back offices that issues like corruption crop up. This should be minimised, and it can be. K-SMART is the best example.
What’s the next stage of KFON?
We’re doing something very unique in the country — connecting the unconnected. The idea developed within the team to connect tribal areas. We selected a village in Thiruvananthapuram — Kottur. There are 27 hamlets. We connected two. Ninety-three families of Chonampara and Aalipara have benefitted from this, and the good thing is life has changed for them. These are deep in the forest, and they don’t have any connectivity.
The initiative was supported by South Indian Bank as part of their CSR. Inspired by this, we have connected Panthaladikunnu in Wayanad and Attappadi. We connected around 300 families. Now we are consumed by this. So, I have spoken to Renu Raj, the director of tribal welfare, to connect all 1,600 tribal habitations in Kerala.
For a year, we can do with CSR funds. Maybe through this, I can request all companies to spend money on CSR and connect the tribal hamlets. The government has provided them with good houses but they don’t have any option to connect. They have to move from one rock to the next to get connected. I feel that I must connect them.
What does the consumer use this data for? Have you noticed any pattern in Kerala?
The pattern is clear. More than 60% is on entertainment. That’s natural as well. E-governance doesn’t require much data. But that is an essential part, and we can’t deny them.
What’s the status of the Work Near Home project? Any expansion plan?
For a work-near-home setup, you will get an 80% interest-free loan through KSITIL (Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd), funded by KIIFB. Two such centres have been set up. We are talking to people. These spaces should not be near the Cyberparks, Technopark, or Infopark. That’s a condition set by the government.
In semi-urban areas?
Our idea is to take it to village panchayats. But we don’t know if people are working there. There will be people who are working from home. But there is no huge demand. We plan to come up with 10 such centres across Kerala.
You have worked with the Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments. What differences have you felt?
The main difference is the process. Kerala is very process-driven. Tamil Nadu is not so. For example, if we have to sanction land to set up an industry in Tamil Nadu, you get the approval immediately. But in Kerala, one has to go through a big chain of procedures. It takes a lot of time. This is the bureaucratic delay I was talking about. This is because everyone is afraid of getting blamed. The bureaucratic levels are afraid of the petitions and RTIs that they’ll have to answer. However, this makes the process very clean. In Kerala, there is no political interference. That’s not the case in Tamil Nadu. In Kerala, auto-escalation is the only solution that can boost growth.
How do you see the political class responding to new ideas? Are they receptive?
Yes. Very much. Do you know who gave me the K-SMART idea? Govindan Master. He contacted me with the idea because he wants the system to change. That shows the positive attitude the political class at the top has when it comes to good governance. Be it any party. The only issue that casts a shadow is the delay in file movement. The crux of governance is file movement.
Do you think the CM is frustrated by this so-called apathy in the bureaucratic system?
This is because of the absence of an incentive system in the government system. There should be a performance incentive and non-performance disincentive. We are paying salaries with money from the taxpayers. The babus (government servants) need to do their work instead of sending out queries. The leaders need to have the wherewithal to overrule the decisions made by those down the chain. The leaders can do so while giving a reason for their decision. All this will speed up the process of file clearance. Many files get rejected for minor reasons. That is not so in TN. There I could take the file directly to the CM, and get it signed and approved in a day or two. Here, though the political class is ready to sign the files, the time it takes for the files to reach them is very long.
Are you saying that there is intent but no on-the-ground realisation?
Ahh... how do I say it? Things are improving (laughs). Computerisation has brought in a lot of improvement.
What about ease of doing business?
We are far ahead of other states in the country. However, we need to compare ourselves with other countries, like Singapore, which are way ahead.