With KFON as Kerala’s digital backbone and K-SMART powering intelligent service delivery, the state is moving beyond E-Governance to P-Governance, S-Governance, and A-Governance. The goal is clear — eliminate queues, cut delays, and give every citizen access to fast, transparent services on their mobile phones.  Dr. Santhosh Babu, IAS (Retd.), Principal Secretary & Managing Director, Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL) & Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON), and Chief Mission Director & Executive Director, Information Kerala Mission (IKM), in an exclusive interaction with Krishna Mishra of Elets News Network (ENN).

Edited excerpts:

Kerala became the first Indian state to declare the right to internet access as a basic right. With KFON aiming to provide free internet to over 20 lakh BPL families and connect 30,000+ government offices, how do you evaluate the impact so far on digital inclusion and public service delivery, especially in rural and tribal areas?

The Government of Kerala took a huge decision by making Internet a basic right, the first by any state Government in Kerala. Thus, emerged Kerala’s flagship K-FON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network) project. This has made significant strides in digital inclusion since its launch, particularly in connecting government institutions and underserved households. Initially tasked with connecting 30,438 government offices, the project has already exceeded this number and is now servicing over 5,000 additional institutions on request. With more than 1.44 lakh offices connected to the electricity grid, officials estimate that the actual demand for connectivity could reach 75,000–1 lakh offices, indicating strong acceptance and growing demand.

Government departments are largely satisfied with the connectivity and services provided under KFON, although timely payment for these services remains a concern. As of now, about 24,500 institutions from the original target list have been successfully connected to the internet.

On the digital inclusion front, the project aimed to provide free internet to 20 lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. To kick-start this mission, K-FON partnered with the Local Self Government Department (LSGD) to identify 14,000 beneficiaries—100 from each of the 140 assembly constituencies. However, incomplete data delayed the rollout, and only 5,200 connections could be initially provided.

To improve targeting and efficiency, K-FON later integrated its Business Support System (BSS) with the Civil Supplies Department’s database. Through an API-based integration and a public campaign, over 20,000–30,000 eligible households registered online. This process captured precise beneficiary information, including GPS coordinates, enabling the project team to deliver services accurately. So far, nearly 13,000 BPL households have been connected, and with a fresh budget allocation of ₹60 crore, the project plans to connect 75,000 additional households this year.

K-FON has also taken up a major challenge—”Connecting the Unconnected”, basically targeting only tribal habitations, where internet access remains a major hurdle due to remoteness and difficult terrain. In its pilot phase, 503 tribal families have been connected, with strong positive impact. However, the cost of servicing these areas far exceeds standard BPL allocations. For example, one remote village in Kuttampuzha in Ernakulam district, requires an estimated ₹7 crore for connectivity due to the need for underground and overground cabling.

To address these challenges, K-FON is conducting a desktop survey to estimate the cost of connecting all 4,600 tribal habitations in Kerala. A CSR-driven model is being developed to fund this initiative. A CSR Conclave is being planned (tentatively July–August), where corporate partners will be invited to “adopt” specific tribal habitations for digital connectivity. K-FON will provide technical, logistical, and administrative support, while the CSR partners will fund the rollout, helping achieve social impact at scale.

This comprehensive approach—leveraging public funds, technology integration, and CSR partnerships—positions K-FON not only as a backbone for government digital services but also as a model for inclusive, last-mile digital empowerment across Kerala.

KFON Phase 1 reportedly completed over 90% of its targeted infrastructure by early 2024, laying over 30,000 km of optical fibre. What were some of the biggest challenges in implementing a project of this scale, and how were public-private partnerships instrumental in driving execution?

K-FON Phase 1 achieved over 97 % infrastructure completion by early 2024, laying more than 30,000 km of optical fibre. While the partnership with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and its Consortium provided strong technical capabilities, the execution of a project of this scale came with its own set of complex challenges.

One of the biggest hurdles was acquiring right of way (RoW) approvals for laying fibre, especially from agencies not under the state’s jurisdiction, such as the Railways and National Highways Authority. Persistent engagement at senior levels helped ease the process, but coordination remained a challenge.

A major implementation bottleneck was electricity shutdowns. Since KFON’s fibre is mounted on power poles, KSEBL has to permit shutdowns for installation. However, shutdowns were difficult to obtain, particularly in commercial hubs like Kochi, where power cuts could disrupt business and face backlash from local associations. Contractors, who often deployed large teams at high costs, faced financial risk when shutdowns were cancelled last-minute, making them hesitant to mobilise resources without guaranteed approvals.

Another significant challenge was the delay caused by an exhaustive verification process. Each stage of fibre deployment and billing went through multiple layers of scrutiny—from third-party auditors like TCIL, the Project Management Unit (PMU), and even the funding agency KIIFBI’s on-ground inspections. While this ensured transparency and accountability, it slowed down disbursements and execution.

Additionally, cash flow and lack of flexibility in project design were issues. Although the state paid its full share of ₹336 crore, strict adherence to the originally approved RFP (Request for Proposal) restricted on-field modifications. Any change, however minor, required government approval—leading to bureaucratic delays.

Despite these hurdles, the project progressed well. Within just 15 months, KFON delivered over 1.03 lakh broadband connections—comparable to what private telcos took years to achieve. Today, the network operates with high reliability and international service standards.

Public-Private collaboration played a critical role in navigating technical, operational, and administrative challenges, making KFON a scalable model for digital inclusion in India.

Under your leadership, the Information Kerala Mission has supported digitisation across over 1,200 local self-government institutions. Could you share insights into how IKM’s e-governance tools (like Sanchaya, Sevana, and Sulekha) are enhancing administrative efficiency and citizen engagement at the grassroots level?

Information Kerala Mission (IKM) has been a driving force in transforming governance at the grassroots level in Kerala. Over 1,200 local self-government institutions have embraced digitization, significantly enhancing administrative efficiency and citizen engagement through innovative e-governance tools.

Our core philosophy is: “No citizen should ever need to visit a government office.” This vision aims to make government offices “back offices” and the mobile phone the primary interface between citizens and the government. The K-SMART (Kerala Solutions for Managing Administrative Reformation and Transformation) platform launched on 01/01/2024 for Urban Local Bodies and on 10/04/2025 for Rural Local Bodies, has replaced the myriad applications that IKM had developed since 1999. The support given by the Local Self Government Department has enabled this transition to K-SMART.

K-SMART: A Game-Changer in Service Delivery

K-SMART is at the heart of IKM’s efforts, designed as a microservices-architected platform that can seamlessly integrate various government services. Its impact on administrative efficiency and citizen engagement is evident in all areas of Local Self Governance, which is very strong in Kerala.

l ) Drastically Reduced Service Delivery Times: K-Smart has revolutionised how services are delivered. For example:

• Building Permits: What once took 30 to 300 days for building permits, riddled with semi-paper, semi-online, semi-physical visits, and corruption, now takes a mere 3 seconds for 70% of buildings under 3,000 square feet in Kerala. This complete transformation eliminates human discretion and significantly reduces delays.
• Marriage Certificates: To avoid citizens having to travel back for marriage certificates, IKM implemented video KYC, enabling couples and registrars to connect from anywhere in the world. Certificates are now issued within 24 minutes, a stark contrast to previous multi-day processes.
• Overall Service Level Agreements (SLAs): IKM has successfully reduced SLAs from days (7, 15, etc.) to seconds, minutes, or at most, hours for a vast majority of services.

2) Increased Transparency and Accountability: K-Smart provides citizens with the power to monitor the status of their files, seeing exactly who is holding a file and for how long (seconds, minutes, hours, or days). This level of transparency fosters accountability among government servants, encouraging faster processing and reducing the chances of undue delays.

3) Improved Government Productivity: The system allows for monitoring of government servants’ work, revealing that 50% of files are cleared within 24 hours, even with staff working outside office hours or on holidays. This indicates a positive shift in work culture, enabled by the digital infrastructure.

4) Consolidated Services for Citizen Convenience: While Kerala offers 1,000 online services, they are currently spread across numerous apps and websites. IKM’s vision is to consolidate all Kerala government services into a single mobile app, preferably K-SMART. This will allow citizens to access a multitude of services (e.g., land, building permits, electricity, water) with a single click, eliminating the need to visit multiple departments or use various interfaces.

K-Suite: Revolutionising Internal Government Operations

Beyond citizen-facing services, IKM has developed K-Suite, a unique internal management solution carved out of K-Smart. K-Suit integrates:

• File Management
• Meeting Management
• HR Management System (HRMS)
• Finance

This comprehensive product, unlike any other in the world, aims to streamline internal government operations, moving beyond the static e-Office systems prevalent for decades.

Innovation Kerala Mission: Beyond the Name

IKM is actively fostering innovation. A notable example is the ward mapping project for the State Election Commission. What was projected to take six months was completed by IKM’s team in just 20 days, mapping 20,799 wards using a modified Q-Field app. This mapping allows for precise geographical boundaries, preventing issues like couples residing in different wards of the same house.

Challenges and the Path Forward

Despite these successes, challenges remain. The primary hurdle is the perception of IT as an expenditure rather than an investment within government finance departments. This leads to underfunding for e-governance initiatives and a tendency to outsource software development at significantly higher costs. IKM advocates for in-house software development, demonstrating its feasibility with K-SMART being developed within approximately Rs. 40 crores, significantly less than outsourced alternatives.

The ultimate goal is to break down government silos, enabling seamless integration of services across departments like revenue, health, and others. The aspiration is to emulate countries like Estonia, where citizens can manage their entire lives with a few clicks on a single platform. IKM believes in leveraging advanced technologies like blockchain and AI to further enhance these services.

IKM has transformed itself into an “Innovation Kerala Mission,” setting a precedent for efficient, transparent, and citizen-centric governance in India. The vision is clear: a future where the government serves its public proactively and digitally, making physical visits to offices a relic of the past. Essentially, Government Offices should become back offices and the Smartphone should be the front office.

K-FON is not just a digital infrastructure project but a social equaliser. As Kerala moves toward universal digital access, what measurable economic and social outcomes have emerged in terms of employment, entrepreneurship, or education, particularly among marginalised communities?

K-FON is not just digital infrastructure — it is truly a social equalizer. My vision is a future where no citizen ever needs to visit a government office. Every minute spent waiting at an office is a minute lost from our finite lives. Imagine the immense cumulative time lost by thousands of people daily. This wasted time could be spent on personal activities, contributing to well-being and productivity. My goal is for all government services to be seamlessly accessible online, eliminating the need for physical visits unless absolutely necessary.

We are perfectly positioned to achieve this transformation — to bring the entire government onto a mobile phone. The age of “E-Governance” is passé; what we need now is a smarter, more intuitive system. This means moving towards P-Governance (Predictive Governance), where services are delivered proactively without the citizen needing to apply. It also means embracing S-Governance (Spatial Governance), which uses geospatial intelligence to plan and manage services efficiently. Finally, we must adopt A-Governance (Algorithmic Governance), which taps into trillions of data points to automate, improve, and personalize service delivery. Together, these shifts will redefine governance — making it faster, more transparent, and citizen-centric.

My goal is for K-SMART to become a true digital public infrastructure. For instance, verifying academic certificates for students applying abroad currently takes months, involving travel and significant expense. With K-SMART as middleware, and a Universal Document Interface (UDI), analogous to UPI for payments, blockchain-based verification could take minutes, handled by front-end services.

Today, we have platforms like GPay, Beam, Helium, Oxygen — billion-dollar front ends. What if they became front ends for Universal Document Interface (UDI) — just like UPI revolutionized payments?

Let’s make K-SMART the backbone of India’s digital public infrastructure, with K-FON as the enabler. Laptops should fade out. Smartphones should take over.

No more waiting rooms. No more paperwork. Just dignified, digital-first governance.

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