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Ambar Singh Roy

Revokes implementation partners' bank guarantee

Kolkata , May 23

The NSE.IT report on what went wrong with the software that was developed by IBM for facilitation of e-auction of tea and the roadmap ahead in this regard is slated to be submitted to the Tea Board by June 10, according to Mr Basudeb Banerjee, Chairman of the Tea Board.

Speaking to Business Line after the Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, charged IBM, and the project consultant Accenture for failing to develop appropriate software for electronic tea auction, Mr Banerjee said the software that had been developed was "limping along" when the system operates at 10 per cent of its capacity but "problems start when we scale up operations".

Problems

These problems relate to VSAT connectivity, transparency and realisation of fair prices for stakeholders. Following this, the implementation partners' bank guarantee of Rs 60-odd lakh has been revoked.

Mr Banerjee said the Tea Board had appointed Accenture as consultant for the e-auction project even as IBM had been entrusted with the responsibility of developing the software. Despite the technical glitches, the auction centres in Coonoor, Kochi and Coimbatore in South India and Siliguri in North Bengal were using the software, albeit with some modifications. While the system had been installed in the tea auction centre in Guwahati, in Kolkata the boxes containing the hardware were yet to be opened.

According to him, a roadmap for the implementation of the initiative for e-auction of tea is expected to be ready following receipt of the report from NSE.IT.

"The Minister (Mr Ramesh) is coming back to Kolkata by June 20th. Before that, we must have the hardware infrastructure in Kolkata in place as well", Mr Banerjee said, and added that failsafe implementation of the e-auction system was crucial for the Indian tea industry.

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