i4donline.net ~ December 2005 Issue

Agriculture

Agriculture in decline in Maharashtra
Even though nearly 55 per cent of Maharashtra’s workforce is still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood, the sector is in a state of constant decline over the last two decades.

Though Maharashtra accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s total agriculture output and 6 per cent in terms of food grains, the per hectare yield is very poor. During 1981 and 2001, percentage of people who depend on agriculture for their livelihood declined by a mere 4 per cent, from 59.1 per cent to 55 per cent.

The low yield is attributed to inadequate irrigation. There were limitations to increasing land under irrigation, as the state had irrigation potential of only 30 per cent, of which 16 per cent had been already exploited.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com

Community radio

India notifies FDI in FM radio
The Government of India notified 20% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in FM radio, weeks after inviting bids for the second phase of expansion.

Till now, foreign investment was permitted in terrestrial broadcasting up to 20% under the portfolio investment schemes. Over 100 applications have been made to the government, seeking entry to the second phase of private FM radio service. Even as the government allowed FDI in the sector, it decided to continue the ban on news and current affairs.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Education
‘Internet to Masses’ coming up in Indian state
Akshaya, the e-Learning and enterprise initiative of the Kerala State Government in India, will roll out ‘Internet to Masses,’ a new venture, in Malappuram district.

The new venture aims to provide comprehensive training to an estimated one-lakh people on the Internet. Selected candidates will be given training through the Akshaya e-Kendras in the district. At present, 400 Akshaya e-Kendras in the district have broadband Internet connectivity.

The Akshaya project was launched in Malappuram in November 2002. Malappuram has the largest concentration of non-residents in the State taking extensively use of Internet.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

Teachers get recognition for using ICTs Innovative Teachers Leadership Award, the annual award constituted under Microsoft’s educational programme, Project Shiksha, has been given to 15 Indian teachers this year.

The award seeks to honour schoolteachers, selected by eminent educationists, for using information technology innovatively in their teaching techniques.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com

Refurbished computers in use to teach English in India
Donated second-hand computers are helping to bring English language skills to children in rural India through “Project Pygmalion”.

With the support of the Institute of Leadership and Institutional Development (ILID), this project uses computers as a tool to enhance the English-speaking skills of primary-school students in Standard 5 (Grade 5) and is being implemented in 19 schools (15 government-run) in villages in and around Mysore and Bangladore, India.

Source: http://www.ilid.org

Microsoft puts British Library online
About 100,000 books in the British Library are going to be scanned and put online by software giant Microsoft. The books, which are out of copyright, will be digitised from 2006 and put online as part of Microsoft’s book search service next year. A separate global digital library plan by Google is also under way.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk

ICT books available for primary students
Primary and lower secondary school students are now able to bridge the digital gap as they can purchase books on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Malay language.

The books, “Mudah Ke Arah Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi” (Easy Guide towards ICT) level one to six (in English language) and level one to three (in Malay language) authored by Hj Kamsani Hj Ahmad, a senior lecturer of Institute Teknologi Brunei (ITB) were exhibited at the Brunei ICT Awards (BICTA) expo at the International Convention Centre in Berakas.

Source: http://www.brudirect.com

e-Governance

Chandigarh gets best e-Governed state award
Chandigarh, the Indian state was adjudged the best e-Governed state at the Computer Society of India (CSI) and Nihilent e-Governance Awards for the year 2004.

The award recognized the Department of Information Technology, Chandigarh e-Sampark project. e-Sampark aims to bring together all departments of the state under a single umbrella and give citizens a “multi-service-single-window” experience. Andhra Pradesh was awarded for Best Policy Framework and e-Readiness, and Gujarat for Best Citizen Facilitation.

Source: http://www.indiainfoline.com

Vizag police to go hi-tech
Come June 2006, the Police department in the districts in Vizag region in India would have e-Cop system.

This will help in registering complaints online and monitoring their status through Internet. The system is already in vogue in Hyderabad. This would help in bringing greater transparency to the functioning of the police.

Source:http://www.newindpress.com

India portal a gateway for Govt info, services
The Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, has launched the national portal of India, ‘www.india.gov.in’, which will act as a gateway for various Central and State Government online services, including applying for marriage certificates, downloading forms for passport, and also provide information relating to Government tenders, policies and schemes.

The portal will play a key role in the ambitious National e-Governance programme, as it can serve as the front-end for the 28 mission mode projects being proposed. The portal, developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), provides a single interface to all Government sites providing comprehensive information in sections on citizens, businesses, overseas, Government, etc.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

CSCs to come up in one lakh Indian villages
Communications and IT Minister of India, Dayanidhi Maran has announced that Common Service Centres (CSCs) will be set up in one-lakh villages in the country next year as part of the ambitious e-Governance project.

The project envisaged providing information right at the local village level with the help of broadband connectivity through State servers, which in turn would be connected to the National Service centres (NSCs). The villagers could access to the services offered by the State and apply for land records, birth certificate, death certificate and community certificates and get them at their place itself through State servers.

Source: http://news.webindia123.com

e-Commerce

Amazon, Google work on pay-per-page e-Books
In a race to become online repository of the publishing world, Amazon.com and Google are both developing systems to allow consumers to purchase online access to any page, section or chapter of a book.

The idea is to allow consumers to buy and download parts of individual books for their own use rather than trek to a store or receive them by mail. Microsoft also is investing in a book-scanning programme called MSN Book Search. Yahoo had earlier joined the group, which is working to digitise the contents of millions of books and put them on the Internet, with full text accessible to anyone, while respecting the rights of copyright holders.

Source: http://www.asianage.com

e-Procurement creates record in Southern India
Andhra Pradesh has created a record by processing contracts worth Rs 17,000 crore through the e-Procurement platform in the first half of the current financial year.

Over seven government departments, 11 public sector units, two universities, 11 municipal corporations and 30 municipalities have been using the e-Procurement platform for awarding contracts over and above Rs 1 lakh. Of the Rs 17,000-crore work contracts, the state irrigation department alone contributed Rs 15,000 crore in over 1,000 tender packages. Other government departments, including various corporations and local bodies, have invited over 5,000 bids with a total value of Rs 2,000 crore.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com

Livelihood

Free training at Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd has announced free training programs for the IT professional community, to help impart skills related to the upcoming SQL 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 offerings from Microsoft.

The company will launch the next versions of its database server and developer tools offering worldwide in December, and these training programs provide a perfect opportunity for IT professionals to get a first hand look and deeper understanding of these offerings.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com

Africa eyeing Indian IT professionals
In an effort to bridge technical skill shortage in their country, South Africa is eyeing Indian IT professionals, engineers and teachers, besides training cooperation in the field of public administration.

South Africa plans to recruit Indians from open market to address technical skills shortages in areas like education, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and health. The African country was also looking to rope in Indian public servants for training their South African counterparts as part of a capacity building programme.

Source:http://www.newindpress.com

Zambian Youth Project bringing new livelihood
The Zambian Chawama Youth Project started in the heart of Lusaka’s Chawama Township, brings life skills to local youth and women through ICTs.

The Skills Training Centre has become ambitious in exploring new Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). Chawama Youth Project and Skills Training center has since its registration in 2001 trained over 300 people in different fields that include carpentry and joinery, tailoring and design, welding and metal fabrication, auto mechanics, house wiring and power electrical among others. It recently put in place an ICT center that would enable youths and other clients from the local community to access the Internet and other computer-based secretarial services easily.

Source: http://www.iicd.org

Outsourcing to create more than 3 lakh new jobs in US by 2010
A Recent study commissioned by the IT Association of America (ITAA) has said that the incremental economic activity triggered by offshoring is likely to create over 3.37 lakh net new jobs in the US by 2010.

The incremental economic activity that follows offshore IT outsourcing created over 2.57 lakh net new jobs in 2005. The study found that outsourcing of IT services added to the take-home pay of average US workers.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

US law firms plan to outsource work to India
United States law firms are looking at outsourcing electronic discovery to India. At present the job of electronic discovery is done by junior lawyers in the US. However, technology has made possible these searches to be outsourced to India.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Open source

Women to promote open source in Africa
The third Women’s Electronic Network Training (WENT) Africa event hosted by APC-Africa-Women, will take place in Uganda in December. The focus for the event is the promotion of awareness and support for free and open source software (FOSS) in women’s organisations in Africa.

The workshop’s primary objectives
are to stimulate awareness and adoption of FOSS solutions among women’s organisations in the region, and to provide technical support to women’s organisations in the assessment, adoption and use of FOSS applications within women’s organisations.

Source: http://www.tectonic.co.za

Thai agency targets 10 percent of PCs for FOSS
Thailand’s Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) has set a target of having open-source software on one in every 10 PCs in the next three years and is now working with universities to push this goal for the education and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) sectors.

According to Sipa, there are around four million PCs in the market and 700,000 new units per year, and only 10 percent of these are sought to run open-source software.Sipa plans to work around 20 to 30 universities nationwide in Thailand.

Source: http://www.linuxinsider.com

Technology

PC penetration high among SMEs in Malaysia
While the level of personal computer (PC) penetration among Malaysian households is still low, the penetration among businesses is high.

PC penetration among businesses in Malaysia, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), is encouragingly high at 66 percent. This percentage is above Korea (61 percent) and Taiwan (58 percent) but still below Singapore at 82 percent and Hong Kong (70 percent). As for PC penetration among Malaysian households, it is currently at 17 percent from a base of five million households, whereas Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia have achieved over 50 percent penetration.

Source: http://www.bernama.com.my

Telecommunication

Uniform call rates across India from January
The Government of India has announced that the ‘IndiaOne’ regime, which entails a single call rate across the country, would come into effect from January 2006.

This would do away with the difference between local call charges and STD tariffs.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

Now ombudsman to listen telecom grievance

For more than 100 mn telecom subscribers, the Government of India is planning to set up an ombudsman for consumer grievances.

Currently, there is no specialised body, which consumers can approach with their complaints except approaching courts, which is a long-drawn-out process. The draft new telecom policy proposes to set up the institution of Ombudsman for consumer grievances in the telecom sector.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

BSNL tender for GSM line to have Indian quota
Telecom vendors bagging orders for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)’s 60-million GSM lines project, which is the world’s largest ever for GSM lines, may not be allowed to sub-contract to others. But they may be allowed to outsource from public-sector equipment manufacturers.

Indian Telephone Industries can bag a contract for 15 million lines by just participating in the tender as it is the only Indian Public Sector Units in the business of manufacturing GSM equipment. A restriction on sub-contracting to foreign players is expected to affect giants like Nortel, Motorola and Lucent, which outsource a considerable chunk of their GSM equipment.

Source: http://www.businessstandard.com

Health

Website blending IT and medicine info
A team of doctors has launched www.pgmed.com, a website designed specifically for practising doctors and medical students.

The website aims at equipping medical students with comprehensive knowledge of all subjects that will be part of their curriculum and enabling practising doctors keep abreast of developments in the medical scenario.

Source:http://www.newindpress.com

South Indian docs bring in new technique for LDP

The doctors at the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS)
in the southern Indian state Andhra Pradesh, have come up with a cost effective technique to operate upon persons suffering from Lumbar Disc Prolapse (LDP) responsible for severe pain in the back and legs, resulting in inability to bend or walk. In the new technique developed by SVIMS neurosurgery team, the disc is removed using specially devised equipment. According to the doctors, apart from a very reduced cost of operation, the post-operative pain is less and the patient can be discharged in a day after the surgery.

Source:http://www.newindpress.com

Wireless

Spice to offer Rs1000-handset in India
Cellular service provider Spice plans to manufacture GSM handsets at its Baddi plant in Himachal Pradesh offering a handset for Rs 1,000 in the Indian market in the next 12 months.

Spice currently sells 25,000 to 35,000 handsets a month under its own brand name. These mobiles are basic, no-frills models and imported from Taiwan.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

Japan broadening its wireless phone market
New competition is coming to Japan’s mobile phone market, with the Japanese communications ministry announcing it would grant unused bandwidth to three new entrants, Softbank, eAccess and a start-up, IP Mobile .

The new carriers will shake up the nation’s $70 billion cellular market, now divided among three big carriers — NTT DoCoMo and KDDI of Japan, and Vodafone of Britain. They have promised to help close the gaps, offering part of their bandwidth for wireless Internet access.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com

Google, Yahoo- the new faces in wireless market
Google has launched Google Local for mobile, which essentially gives cell phone users access to satellite maps already available on Google Maps. And Yahoo plans to release soon a cell phone in partnership with SBC Communications Inc.

Users of Google Local now can use their cell phones to search for businesses or services in a geographic location. The results are plotted in a map and as driving directions. The Yahoo mobile to be launched is expected to enable Yahoo to wirelessly link its Internet services, such as e-Mail, photos and music, with users’ Yahoo address books and accounts, etc.

Source: http://www.cbronline.com

General

Hong Kong company plans free PC program in India

After announcing a program last month to offer free PCs to lower income people in developing markets, Asiatotal.net, the Hong Kong-based company now plans to add India to its list of targeted countries.

Last month, the company announced plans to ship 200,000 free PCs to Brazil over the coming months. The company does not provide the Internet access free, but only the device called the iT, and a minimum requirement is that the user have a telephone connection and an Internet account. In India, the company has yet to assess the market and negotiate with marketing companies to sponsor the program.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com