Directorate of Information Systems (DIS)

Directorate of Information Systems

Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) is one of the pioneer Universities in the State, if not in the Country, with a well-developed Information Technology wing since 2003. This closely follows the footsteps of the Kerala State, which has emerged as the Country's first 'Digital State' by launching the Akshaya Project and IT@School programme in 2002.

Though the IT wing of the KAU was formally established as the Centre for Information Technology & Instrumentation (CITI) in 2003, the KAU has been having the Central Computer Facility (CCF) as early as 1985. This has been later renamed to Centre for e-Governance (CeG). Thereon based on the Guidelines for Establishing/Upgradation of Computer Centers in Universities during the XI plan (2007-12) of the UGC, the Centre underwent a series of changes in its objectives and functions. The Centre's aim was to set up a Computer Centre as a Central facility for the growth and development of teaching, research, extension, and other related activities in addition to the administrative, finance, examination, and admission of the University. The primary functions of the CITI/CeG envisaged were,

1. To provide a central computing facility with Network Server for all the students and staff of KAU.

2. To make the facility available to the students and faculty and offer assistance in conducting research.

3. To organise and conduct short-term IT-related courses for the students and staff of KAU.

4. To assist various Departments of KAU in computerising their activities.

5. To establish, coordinate, maintain and administer a campus-wide Network including Internet and allied services.

6. To work as a coordinating centre in networking with other universities' computer centres to exchange expertise and software.

7. To keep track of the latest developments in computer hardware/software technologies and internet technologies, collect information, and acquire and impart knowledge to the KAU community.

8. To develop human resources in the field of Information and Communication Technology.

9. Coordinated and extended support to various departments of KAU to organise classroom teaching.

10. Support the research and administrative managers in the decision-making process.

11. Technology support for the Virtual University for Agricultural Trade.

12. Help the farmers and extension workers to retrieve relevant information.

13. Facilitation of IT-supported governance and management.

14. Facilitate the teaching-learning process through virtual education and distance learning initiatives.

15. Manage the basic communication facilities at all the campuses of the KAU.

16. Create and maintain the official website for KAU www.kau.in on the Internet.

17. Create and manage the KAU network, bringing all the university's information systems and equipment together as an integrated system.

18. Evolve standards and guidelines for information systems and networks.

19. Implement a standard hardware and software policy.

20. Software license management and hardware maintenance coordination.

21. Coordinate inter-institutional translocation of IT and instrumentation resources.

22. Provide support for assessing the needs and choosing the appropriate equipment for procurement.

23. Provide pre-installation support and supervision for the proper installation and commissioning of equipment.

24. Advise in the proper use of instruments.

25. Negotiated and supervised service contracts for particular types of equipment.

In 2021 the two existing units under KAU, namely the Centre for Information Technology & Instrumentation (CITI) and Centre for e-Governance (CeG), were merged, and the Directorate of Information Systems (DIS) was formed on 30/07/2021. The e-Governance Initiative of KAU is currently headed by DIS with the unique theme set as "e-governance is not about translating processes but about transforming processes" and thus has been able to make massive progress in improving the operational efficiency of the University. The unit gave significant contributions to making KAU competitive in the fields of research & higher education, adding value to our public service mission & commitments to our farming community, supporting improved analytics and data-driven decision making, streamlining the administrative workflow and serving the needs of students, faculty, staff & pensioners in a better way. We are working hard to keep our stated mission to become a "paperless" Govt. office in Kerala. IT & Communication Infrastructure Management initiatives of DIS with a campus-wide wired and wireless network is the central backbone for the university in upkeeping its operations, whose utility has been better appreciated during the pandemic period when the entire globe moved into an online mode of operation in teaching, governance and administration, KAU also has been afront thanks to the robust IT infrastructure which the KAU has been having for more than three and a half decades.

The website of the Kerala Agricultural University (https://www.kau.in) and its constituent institutions migrated to Drupal, an open-source content management system, in 2014. It is the only known bilingual multi-domain installation of Drupal which serves more than 50 websites of constituent institutions of the University from a single installation with seamless content sharing across these websites.

DIS, in collaboration with the Centre for e-Learning (CeL), KAU extended technical support to the academic activities by primarily facilitating the KAU's own LMS, which is Moodle-based (http://moodle.celkau.in/). Using this LMS, KAU's academic community continued to deliver learning uninterruptedly during the pandemic period.

DIS has also been active on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Several micro-videos on KAU technologies developed by our faculty are available on the KAU YouTube channel. The KAU official Facebook page has a follower base to the tune of 15K.

The DIS has been facilitating the various IT-enabled services at KAU. To facilitate the administration, we use software such as the University Suite, which is the online file flow system at university headquarters, the E-Hajar, the biometric attendance recording, monitoring and leave recording system, HR & Payroll, which has the employee enrollment, salary processing, QR code embedded employee ID card generation and online provision for validating ID authenticity, recruitment, a module for scorecard calculation of applicants and prepare a rank list.

The academic & exam management system of the University has an admission web portal (https://admissions.kau.in/kauonline/main/index.php) that enables online student admissions. The web portal for academic management supports the students from registration of a course to the publication of the final results. The university also has an Academic Convocation Management (http://convocation.kau.in/) web portal that helps with online registration for the annual convocations. Students Portal is involved with the complete management of student activities, including complaint registration provisions and resolution. Certificate generation will be an added utility for generating photo and QR code-embedded academic certificates. KAU has registered in DigiLocker and has started uploading details of the students onto it.

KAU has implemented ICAR's Academic Management Software (AMS). This Academic Management System automates various academic processes and has sub-modules like courses management, student management, faculty management, administration management and e-learning.

For research management, the KAU developed the software viz. Online Research Management Information System (ORMIS). For the monitoring and management of research projects. The other software developed is the Management Information System for Transfer of Technology (MISTT). At the same time, the Project Management Module (PMM) helps monitor the progress of KAU projects.

Towards extension management, the DIS developed the sales and service portal for showcasing and selling university products and services. The University Sales Administration and Information Management (USAIM) helps with the daily stock on advance billing, cash and invoice billing of the sale of the KAU products through the KAU outlets.

The infrastructure management of the Directorate of Physical Plant is facilitated through the Work Advance Accounting Module, which enables the accounting of the infrastructure works.

The finance management at KAU extensively uses the internally developed accounting software University Functional Accountability System (UFAST), which tracks the flow of funds from government grants/funding agencies to expenditure. While the University Pension Administration System (UPAST) automates all pensioner benefit calculations, including tracking pension details, life certificate submission, IT anticipation, issue of Form 16 etc. The Provident Fund Management System records the monthly PF subscriptions and also publishes the yearly credit cards of the KAU employees.

The DIS team have also developed several user-friendly mobile applications for the KAU fraternity. These include,

KAU Live: KAU Live is an authentic notification and communication platform which generates automated and customised notifications to various target groups like farmers, students, trainees, business institutions collaborating with KAU etc., with authentic and timely notifications of the updates from KAU. KAU Live also facilitates a geolocation-based search facility for KAU's products & services for the general public and farmers regarding product/service availability and critical contacts.

KAU ESS: KAU ESS is a specialised application intended for the employees of KAU. The primary aim of the application is to reduce the usage of paper by making all information that used to be communicated to the employees through printed documents available at the fingertips. These details include salary, PF, income tax etc.

KAU UPAST: KAU UPAST serves the pensioners of the university by making all pension-related information available at their fingertips. The interlocution of the app significantly reduced the amount of printed communication to and from the pensioners to the university.

The KAU main campus is connected to the National Knowledge Network (NKN) grid with one GigaBit bandwidth connectivity. This connectivity is shared between all constituent colleges, Central Library, student hostels, and faculty residences on the main campus. Implementing an online fee portal that will enable university students to make online fee payments using the various payment gateways, viz., net banking, UPI, Credit /Debit cards etc., is undergoing a security audit by an empanelled agency. This will enable cashless digital payments to become a reality at the university. KAU has also started work on an "Application Portal" for issuing certificates like provisional degree certificates, migration certificates, transcripts, genuineness certificates, equivalency certificates etc., as a part of the "Ease of Doing Business" policy of GoK.

In addition, Kerala Agricultural University issued institutional electronic workspace accounts to nearly 3000 students. The student's workspace accounts are in the domain name '@student.kau.in', under the Google Workspace for Education which contains communication tools such as Gmail, Google Meet, Chat etc., and collaboration tools including docs, sheets, slides, forms etc. This will provide students with an electronic identity under the umbrella of the Kerala Agricultural University. This institutional workspace account will also enable KAU students to establish links with professional societies, journals, peer groups, etc., bringing more visibility to the university. Needless to say, the @kau.in institutional email account has been issued to all the scientists, administrative staff and pensioners of the KAU too.

The student computer facility that the constituent colleges of the KAU are maintaining, where the basic infrastructure has been provided through the ICAR-Development Grant and is run as a self-supported entity managed by the students themselves. This novel concept has been highly praised by the ICAR visiting team for accreditation in their report.