Case Study

Case Study – Digitization of forms and documents of LAKSHMIR BHANDER Scheme of Govt of West Bengal

Executive Summary

LAKSHMIR BHANDER is a flagship social sector scheme of Govt. of West Bengal the objective of which is to provide monthly cash subsidy to the women population of the state. This scheme is rolled out during every phase of DUARE SARKAR program of Govt of West Bengal. Under this scheme, the women citizen of a particular area physically comes to DUARE SARKAR camps for getting benefits of the scheme with application forms and KYC documents in a large number. These application forms and documents are collected in DUARE SARKAR camps, run by local autonomous bodies, responsible for giving services to citizens like Municipalities, Panchayats etc and thereafter it goes for digitization and uploading in respective portals. Once these forms and documents are successfully digitized after completion of scrutiny and uploaded in portal, the corresponding beneficiaries become eligible for getting benefits of the scheme

Name of Client Organization :

Kolkata Municipal Corporation(KMC)

Role of AMBICON

AMBICON MANAGEMENT SERVICES (P) LTD., is the digitization partner of Kolkata Municipal Corporation for the LAKSHMIR BHANDER Project. AMBICON is responsible for successful execution of this project for each round of DUARE SARKAR. The role of AMBICON Starts from collection of physical forms and applications of beneficiaries and thereafter processing the same and digitizing and finally uploading them in corresponding portal. AMBICON, being the digitization partner for this project, remains responsible for successful digitization and uploading of each form and documents of each beneficiary so that they can get the benefit of the scheme

Challenges in implementation of this project

AMBICON has faced a number of challenges while implementing the project of digitization of LAKSHMIR BHANDER application forms and documents which are unique of its kind and of course critical and different from regular challenges and obstacles , being faced in such projects. The brief details of the major challenges are as follows :

1. Huge Volume of Application :

   This scheme being a very popular social sector scheme, the nos. of applicants are quite high in number in this scheme

2. Excess Nos. of Documents for each beneficiary :

   Since this scheme is aiming at giving cash benefits to women citizen of the state, therefore, the beneficiaries provides maximum nos. of documents with application forms to become sure of getting the benefit of the scheme even though the same are not required and not asked for in KYC guideline of the scheme. These excess nos. of documents increase the processing time for each beneficiary

3. Limited Turn Around time:

   As mentioned already, this scheme is a flagship scheme of the government and therefore, the government machinery is quite focussed about successful implementation of the same and also about providing benefits to the applicants within limited possible time. The digitization partner, therefore, on the other side, is having a very limited time to complete digitization process of extra ordinarily huge nos. of applicants.

4. Multiple points of collection of documents:

   The forms and documents are required to be collected from multiple locations every day and there is no single point of collection of documents. As a result of this , deployment of human resources are more for one single category of job and also due to this factor there is a substantial amount of delay every day in processing of forms

5. Sensitivity of the scheme :

   This scheme of LAKSHMIR BHANDER is having a coverage for total women citizen of the state of west Bengal and therefore, this scheme is considered as highly sensitive with large scale social implication. As a result of this the digitization partner of this scheme need to take extra ordinary care on accuracy and correctness of digitization process. Maintaining correctness and accuracy of digitization is all the more important because this scheme is related to Direct cash benefit transfer to the bank accounts of lakhs of general and common women citizen of the state and that is why even minimum and acceptable level of errors and mistakes, common for such digitization projects , are not permissible in this project/p>

Methodology of AMBICON for overcoming the challenges

Before implementing any project, it is always necessary to identify the challenges involved in it. Once the challenges are identified then proper methodology for overcoming these challenges and bottlenecks can be devised.

In case of this current project, on which this case study is prepared, AMBICON has successfully identified the challenges mentioned above and formulated a methodology for beating those challenges. The major highlighting points of this methodology are as follows:

1. Proper daily scheduling of form and documentation collection with area wise allocation of dedicated resources for timely collection of the same
2. Arrangement of additional equipments for digitization ( Hi- Speed Scanners etc) before commencement of the project to cover up extra ordinarily high volume of application forms
3. Preparation of easy to understand SOP for documentation team , engaged in scrutiny of application forms to make the process of verification of required documents with elimination of unnecessary documents fast enough
4. Arrangement and deployment of additional resources in both data entry and Scanning team to meet the completion date line of the project
5. Arrangement of additional working shift for maximization of volume of digitization
6. Deployment of separate team for two phase Quality checking of entries , before it finally goes for verification at client end in order to ensure 100% accuracy of output

Implementation Process followed by AMBICON for the project of digitization of LAKSHMIR BHANDER Application forms and documents

The Steps involved in Implementation process followed by AMBICON for the project of Digitization of LAKSHMIR BHANDER are as follows:

Step No.	Details of the step
1	Collection of Application forms and documents from respective locations of Kolkata Municipal corporation i.e. their boroughs and wards
2	Ward wise Sorting of documents
3	Physical Verification of documents and preparation of lots for Scanning for each wards of the municipality
4	Scanning of verified Application forms and documents
5	On line entry of application of beneficiaries and uploading their corresponding scanned documents in LAKSHMIR BHANDER Portal of Govt. of West Bengal
6	Same day verification of entries done in the portal by quality control team and rejection of wrong entry and uploading done by the operators
7	Re- entry of rejected applications in portal based on internal reporting done by quality control team
8	Preparation and submission of daily ward wise reporting for successful application entries done in the portal for Kolkata Municipal Corporation
9	Re- entry of further rejected entries by Kolkata Municipal corporation in case required
10	Preparation of final municipal ward wise reporting for successful and rejected entries at the end of the project along with final reconciliation of documents received from ward offices of Kolkata Municipal Corporation

Points of achievements of AMBICON in LAKSHMIR BHANDER project

Following are the major points of achievements of AMBICON in digitization project of LAKSHMIR BHANDER Application forms and documents, executed for KOLKATA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

• AMBICON is engaged in this project as digitization partner of Kolkata Municipal Corporation from the Financial Year 2021-22
• AMBICON has successfully completed digitization of applications of more than 1,50,000 applicants in LAKSHMIR BHANDER scheme for Kolkata Municipal Corporation
• AMBICON has successfully digitized nearly 12,00,000 pages during their course of execution of Digitization of LAKSHMIR BHANDER Application forms and documents
• AMBICON has not received any major complaint from Kolkata Municipal Corporation during their ongoing tenure there as digitization partner from Financial year 2021-22 till date and successfully maintained their position in that esteemed organization