Cross Post..
Awright. Just gotta tell this experience. I had gone to the Passport Seva Kendra in Outer Ring Road, opp Intel , today to get my passport renewed.
I filled in the form and got an online appointment. I duly uploaded the the required documents as per what the website "Document Advisor" ( a very nifty feature, tells you exactly what documents are needed based on what service you desire) and I did notice that the website was run by TCS and the online process was available only for Bangalore, Mangalore, Hubli /Dharwad and Chandigarh! I thought , ah.. thank goodness we have the Foreign Minister from KA.
So, off I went this morning at my scheduled appointment time and I was expecting a typical govt office with creaky ceiling fans, battered furniture and paan stained walls and a massive line of people with an army of touts scratching their head outside. The building was an IT/Vity style building from outside . The first thing I noticed something was amiss was that there were smartly attired IT/Vity type private security guards, and not a govt chowkidar /security chap or a Karnataka Police Pandu outside, who was giving directions , and he made the public form an orderly queue, before frisking folks (women had a separate booth with women security frisking them) and then you enter a hall.
I was in for a shock. It was unlike any govt office I had seen before in India. It was light years removed from Shastri Bhavan in Chennai kind of place (from where I got my first passport while at the Madrassa) . There were very nice counters with smiling polite young folks manning it, who did a quick check of the documents and , scanned your appointment receipt's bar code, and gave out a token with a number and bar code and other details in it and as I was directed around the corner, I was gob smacked. There was a turnstile where a guard scanned your token, and then you enter into a nice waiting room , ample place to sit , with clean toilets, a nice snack corner which served coffee/tea out of a vending machine, piping hot and cakes, sandwiches and other snacks and big LCD screens which called out your tokens.
My number came up right as I entered and I was directed to a counter, where I was asked to SIT in nice comfortable chairs, where another nice smiling young man (I realized that it was all TCS folks until now), quickly pulled out what I entered online on the screen (there is one facing you as well, in addition to one for him) checks the doucments, walks with you through what you entered to make sure there are no mistakes and then asks to take your photo with the camera at his desk connected to the machine (the first time wasnt nice enough, I asked him if he could do it again, he smilingly said yes .. can you imagine that in a govt office and took it again), then he got my finger prints scanned, and printed out the documents and asked me to sign , asked if I was paying by cash (I was shocked.. since when could you use credit cards in govt offices.
.), printed out a receipt and then scanned all my documents and said asked me to wait for my token to come up in the other counters.
Soon , enough, I went to the second counter where there was a "verification officer" (I think he was a GOI employee), nicely dressed, polite, not hassled, who verified my documents again, cleared me and asked me to wait for the last counter , and this time it was with the Officers (APO must be Asst Passport Officer I think) , who did a thorough check, as my passport was issued in NY, took his time (again, very polite, not hassled, very pleasant) and passed my file , cancelled my old passport and told me that he was done .
As I was going out through the exit door, another young TCS employee, asked form my token pass, scanned it, scanned my fee payment receipt, and finally , pointed out to a screen next to him and asked me to enter
FEEDBACK on the entire experience, which included basically Ambience, Politeness, Cleanliness (even the bathrooms were a far cry from the typical govt ones and were largely fine, not 5 star hotel clean, but given that it was a public office, perfectly acceptable) and Entire Experience (I think). I gave them top ratings in everything.
The entire office (fully air conditioned, well lit, neat clean, modern furniture, beautifully laid out work flow) and everything could have come right out of any of the Cisco/Intel/Ass Enter/ IT/vity companies surrounding that place.
The final thing of asking for feedback and caring about things like cleanliness and pleasantness of the experience was like a pile driver to my jaw and rocked me back on the heels.
This easily qualified as simply THE BEST experience I have had in ANY official interaction whether in Singapore, Europe or US . Doing it online was fine, but I had not expected the face to face back end part. That simply rocked. No shady "agents" all the unsavory fixers not even visible anywhere near the Passport Seva Kendra .. And my word,what a difference from the experience of 6 and 7 years ago, when I wanted to get my wife's name included in my passport and also get a passport for my daughter.
This experience was a total "Shakinah" .. All Piss,Plogress and Plosperity . The productivity boost out of this outsourcing the bulk of the work to TCS must be simply enormous. There were like 3 govt "officers" and maybe some 6 govt employees and some 30 /40 TCS employees. If the Yindoos (like the TCS outsourced Passport Seva Kendra and the Infosys outsourced Income Tax Centralized Processing Center) can do this kind of process improvements and productivity boosts and this is just the beginning,not even scratching the first few atoms of the surface, the entire world better start shivering in their collective Dhotis. This is a level of Haiti to 1st world jump !
Even the officers and govt employees seemed so different. Maybe it is just that with the daily irritants and the corrosive environment in a typical govt office is removed, they truly come into their own and their entire demeanor and outlook changes!
Thank god for SMK as the FM. Dilli Billis can still get going to their paan stained, "fixers" and shakers infested Sarkari offices and get ripped by the touts and given the run around and the birdie!
. I just hope that Dilli gets the new Passport Seva Kendras LAST
(Being moderator has to have some benefits) 
