Education

Software that appraises student-teacher performance
According to Suhas Gopinath, the 19-year-old Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Globals Inc in the South Indian city Tamil Nadu, the company is in talks with the Ministry of Human Resources to market its school management system to all the 870 Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country.

The company has sold about 200 copies of its product in Nigeria and Europe. It is an online testing tool to appraise the performance level of students as well as that of teachers. It will send Short Message Service (SMS) or e-Mail message to parents if their children are absent at school, enhancing parents involvement in their children’s schooling activities.
Source: http://www.newindpress.com/

Clinton launches tuition-free online education for Africa
Former President of USA, Bill Clinton will serve as keynote speaker for the launch of Professeurs pour la liberté (PPL) on its youth-based program of tuition-free online education for Africa on October 18, 2005. PPL offers scholarships to young people globally to deliver tuition-free online education to the African continent.

The programme builds synergy by blending donated course material and recycled technology from developed nations with the idealism and adventurousness of youth. The former president is particularly keen to encourage young people to serve their communities. PPL delivers real facilitators, in Africa, who will work to develop the online infrastructure, and to assist and encourage African students to learn.
Source: http://www.myppl.org

Microsoft to train 20,000 teachers in southern India
Microsoft Corporation India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Southern Indian state Tamil Nadu’s school education department to establish an IT Academy “Partners in Learning Programme” to train teachers.

As many as 20,000 teachers in the state will be trained and over one million students across the state will also benefit from the programme. Microsoft will also assist the School Education Department in designing the curriculum and providing courseware for students.
Source: http://www.newindpress.com/

e-Governance

State Wide Area Network for Indian villages
According to Indian Union IT minister Dayanidhi Maran, the initiatives taken towards bringing Information Technology to the villages are to be made sustainable.

The first step for that is the creation of core common infrastructure in terms of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) for providing connectivity, National/State Data Centres for reliable and secured data and Common Services Centres (CSCs) for delivery of services. Out of 30 states, 17 have shown keen interest in implementing this project.
Source: http://www.asianage.com/

Tanzania: ICT gets a boost
The government of Tanzania has made concerted efforts to give a push to the spread of Information Communication Technology (ICT) countrywide as a key vehicle towards achievement of the Tanzanian Development Vision 2025.

According to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communication and Transport, Salim Msoma, through ICT empowerment, people’s lives and business transactions were becoming even more efficient and effective. He mentioned the steps as creating a conducive environment for investing in the ICT industry, and formation of a national policy, which addressed key areas, that needed attention in order to realise ICT for all.
Source: http://www.ippmedia.com/

Kenya computerises lands records

All land records of Kenya will be computerised soon. To begin with, information from three million land rent payment cards will be captured in a computer by December 2005. Nairobi title deeds, maps and letters will be available in digital form by next year at an initial cost of Sh18 million. The time taken to transact business will be reduced by half once all the data gets digitised.
Source: http://www.apc.org

Indian company wins e-Gov contract in Somalia
Sobha Renaissance Information Technology (SRIT) has won a US$ 25 million Somalian e-Governance contract for the installation of ‘e-Passport’ and ‘e-Authentication’ systems.

The Indian company will work closely with the Somalian government to roll-out a national passport programme, which is intended to formalise the passport issuance process in Somalia. The other authentication projects in the pipeline are a national ID programme, the automation of driver licences, vehicle registration and national health programmes.
Source: http://www.digitalopportunity.org

3000 Kisan Soochna Kendras coming up in Indian state The Government of Uttaranchal has entered into an agreement with Jaikisan.org, a fully owned subsidiary of Soft Core Tech of Canada to install nearly 3000 Kisan Soochna Kendras (KSK) across the state in order to provide varuious IT-enabled services to people from single kiosk. All 13 districts will be covered under the new scheme, the model for which is loosely based on e-Choulpal. A Soochna Kendra will have facilities like the Internet, basic telephony, a full-fledged home theatre, call centres and other IT-enabled services that are related to weather and agriculture. Already 45 Soochna Kendras have been installed across the state. Each Pradhan of a rural panchayat will be entitled to nominate one entrepreneur who can set up the KSK at his village. A KSK would employ nearly 11 to 12 people. Source: http://www.businessstandard.com

Agriculture

Agriculture info-centres opened in Southern India
The Agriculture Department in Tamil Nadu, the southern India state has opened information centres in various parts of Tiruchi district for providing technical inputs and assistance to farmers.

Farmers could get any information from these centres either in person or at some specific telephone numbers. The centres would continue to provide informations on holidays also.
Source: http://www.thehindu.in/

Community radio

Indian capital city to get community radio stations
Residents of a part of the Indian Capital Delhi can now make themselves heard as the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is about to begin its own community radio channel soon.

The FM channel, to be aired on a frequency of 96.9 MHz, will span a 10-km area around the IIMC campus and will cover Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University’s South Campus, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and adjoining areas. It will have programmes on health, legal aid apart from talks, features and music, where slum dwellers can educate the community about various kinds of folk music and the residents can tell us about the water or electricity problems in the area.
Source: http://propoor.org/

Community radio for Indian engineering college
A community FM radio service was inaugurated recently at Erode Sengunthar Engineering College in Tamil Nadu, India.

The service is intended to develop the students’ skills in various fields. Community radio will certainly help the students to voice their problems and opinions and will help to improve the quality of education among the students.
Source: http://www.thehindu.in

ICT based education in Kenya
In a project to promote education in Africa, in which eighty per cent of Form Four leavers would be computer literate by 2008, Education Minister George Saitoti said that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) would be taught in teachers training colleges to prepare them for the project.

Kenya is keen on promoting ICT based education to its people. Nearly 8,000 teachers are employed and more would be employed as soon as the government allocate more funds to his ministry.
Source: Digital Opportunity Channel

Health

Vietnam medic makes homemade endoscope
A hospital doctor in the poor rural area around the Mekong Delta in Vietnam has used his Personal Computer and some cheap parts to create a homemade endoscope.

In Vietnam, there is a shortage of endoscopes, the diagnostic procedure used to evaluate the interior surfaces of an organ by inserting a small scope in the body which costs around $30,000. The low cost system captures images from the body of a patient, which are then passed through a webcam to an analysis machine. A Pentium 4 computer with a colour printer is all that is needed for image processing and it takes just one week to make a complete endoscope system.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk

CD on malaria prevention wins Mozambican ICT award
A CD-ROM on malaria prevention has won the first prize for production of digital content awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Mozambique.

The CD-ROM ‘Malária – pela e para a comunidade de Manhiça’ on malaria is the first multimedia digital production in national languages produced at the community level. It was acknowledged for providing the communities with locally generated content in local languages, reaching out with the messages about malaria without being too scientific and distant to the users.
Source: http://portal.unesco.org

Technology

Asian broadband Internet satellite launched
A satellite that promises to deliver broadband Internet access to all corners of Asia Pacific was launched into orbit on August 11 from the European space port in French Guiana, South America.

About 2 to 4 million subscribers in 14 countries of the Asia Pacific region will be able to have access to broadband Internet with the launch of Thai-owned IPStar satellite, also called Thaicom-4 for roughly US$ 50 a month no matter where they live. Mobile operators will provide voice services to rural areas for roughly $2 per month.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/

US$21 million for innovative technologies in Chile
Chilean government announced an allocation of US$21 million to sixty one research projects that are developing technologies to meet the country’s social and economic needs. Chile is one of the progressive Latin American countries.

These grants were awarded by the Chilean Fund for the Promotion of Scientific and Technological Development (Fondef).

Key sectors such as, education, forestry, mining, agriculture, information and communication technologies and health will be focused on for research work. Most of them will be run by universities and the remainder by other non-profit research institutions.
Source: http://www.scidev.net/

Telecommunication

India on a march to expand rural mobile telephony
While mobile telephony in India completes a decade, Union Minister of State for Communications and Information, Shakeel Ahmad has asked private cell-phone operators to provide improved access to rural telephony.

As mobile telephones are now becoming tool of the masses, the Government wants to reach all villages as soon as possible, under the Bharat Nirman Programme with a target set for providing public telephones in 66,632 villages by December 2006.
Source: http://www.thehindu.in/

Cellphones at cheaper price
In a development that may lead to mobile handsets being sold for as little as Rs 1,000 (US$ 24), US based company Texas Instruments launched the world’s first single chip solution for cellular phones in India.

This cost-effective single chip for a handset is expected to boost the production of ultra-low-cost mobile phones in emerging markets like India, China and Latin America.

The operations of a mobile phone, which were performed by several chips, have been packed in a single chip, allowing GSM (Global System for Mobile ) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) phone manufacturers to cut production costs by up to 30 per cent.

Indian handset manufacturers like BPL and Quasar are also set to use this technology for their future handset models.
Source: http://www.businessstandard.com

About Conflux 2005 Conflux 2005: The e-Government Conference, is a joint effort by Center for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), Government of NCT of Delhi along with Department of Information Technology, Government of India, UNDP, Danish Technological Institute and key academic and civil society organisations and various multilateral agencies. The aim of this conference is to provide a knowledge sharing platform and a forum for policymakers, practitioners, industry leaders and academicians for converting e-Government vision to actionable program. Latest Updates USAID has joined as a supporting organisation of Conflux 2005. There will be a special session on urban e-governance to be hosted by USAID, during the conference. NASSCOM Foundation has also joined as a supporting organisation of Conflux 2005. Conflux 2005 organised its First Advisory Board Meeting on August 19, 2005 at New Delhi. Key Sessions Rural Computing Topics to be covered under this session are : Common Service Centres (CSCs), e-Panchayat ICT in Agriculture e-Health NeGP Key topics to be discussed: Introduction to NeGP Components of NeGP (SWANs, Data Centres, CSCs) Overview of NeGP Standards Gateway India Portal Implementing NeGP Capacity Building Core Scoping of Mission Mode Projects Central Mission Mode Projects National ID Central Excise Income Tax DCA 21 Passports/Visa and Immigration Pensions Implementation and Policies Strategy for NeGP Overview of First Advisory Board Meeting of Conflux 2005 Conflux 2005 organised its first Advisory Board Meeting on August 19, 2005 at India International Centre, New Delhi. The meeting was aimed at bringing the honoured members of the advisory board on a common platform to discuss the vision and strategies of Conflux 2005 and review the progress made so far. The meeting witnessed an active interaction among the delegates to brainstorm the present needs and priorities of e-Government, which need to be addressed through the conference. The meeting was attended by key stakeholders of e-Government representing the Central Government, Delhi State Government and the IT industry. Important contacts Submission of papers: Vikas Kanungo - +91-9312722591 papers@conflux.csdms.in Registration: Lipika Dutta - +91-9871481708 registration@conflux.csdms.in Sponsorships/Exhibition: Rakesh Tripathie - +91-9810331208 sponsorship@conflux.csdms.in Conflux 2005 Secretariat Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) G - 4, Sector-39, NOIDA - 201 301, India Tel: +91-120-2502180 to 87 Fax: +91-120-2500060 Email: info@conflux.csdms.in URL: www.conflux.csdms.in

e-Volunteers come of age, extend virtual helping hands e-Volunteering or virtual volunteering - the kind of volunteering for a social cause through the Internet is fast catching up among today’s busy professionals with a heart to serve for the less privileged. Virtual volunteering allows non-profit agencies to expand their volunteer programme by opening opportunities for more volunteers to participate and also by utilising volunteers in new areas. Famous Indian NGOs like Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF), Deepalaya, AVJM are already harnessing the immense potential of online volunteers to run their various initiatives. Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/

Wireless

Old Town of Alexandria offers free wireless network access to visitors
The city of Alexandria’s Old Town district of Virginia, USA is offering visitors free wireless Internet access as part of an experiment to boost tourism, test the service for municipal operations and market the city as a high-tech hub.

The programme’s major goals is to help improve government efficiency. Sensors installed in trash cans, e.g., will let officials know online when the receptacles need emptying. The city spent about $14,000 for equipment and $650 a month for the required Internet bandwidth.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/

Open Source
Google launches new open source software
Google launch new Desktop 2.0, its free software, allows users to launch programs on their Personal Computers in its latest encroachment on Microsoft’s ground. It features a “sidebar” a single-column stand-alone strip of information that includes news, weather, stock data, a notepad, photos and easy links to frequently accessed data and programs.

The upgraded software, which allows users to launch programs, search their hard drives and access recent documents and emails, could be used as an alternative to Microsoft’s operating system. The market seems responsive to this initiative.
Source: http://www.businessstandard.com

General

India, Japan agree on co-operation in ICT
India has signed a joint statement with Japan for bilateral co-operation in communications and Information Technology (IT), under which the two sides would seek to develop joint proposals in Research and Development (R&D), Human Resource Development (HRD), e-Governance, IT Enabled Service (ITES), e-Commerce, and rural telecom.

The first meeting of the India-Japan Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministerial Forum would look at opportunities for increasing ties in the sectors of IT and telecommunications. The Forum is the outcome of a programme of co-operation comprising eight-fold initiatives chalked out by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and his Japanese counterpart, Junichiro Koizumi.
Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/

Computerisation of police stations in India
Computerisation of all police stations in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh is nearing completion and the e-Cops network will start functioning by September 2005, ensuring effective policing, according to a recently released news.

According to the Superintendent of Police, Naveen Chand, once the e-Cop network became operational, all police stations should feed the data on First Information Reports (FIRs) and CD files in computers to help in effective monitoring of cases.
Source: http://www.digitalopportunity.com

European Union takes up new research projects on

e-Security
The European Union (EU) is working on thirteen new security research projects, which would aim to combat the growing trend of e-Terrorism across the world.

The Preparatory Action on the ‘Enhancement of the European Industrial Potential in the field of Security Research 2004-2006’ (PARS), of the European Commission (EC) particularly focuses on the development of security research agenda to bridge the gap between civil research, as supported by EC Framework Programmes and national and intergovernmental security research initiatives.
Source: http://europa.eu.int/

Insurance settlement is just an SMS away
Short Message Service (SMS) comes as a new age saviour to settle your insurance queries in minutes, forget now the woes of settling your insurance claims through time-consuming correspondence.

More and more insurance companies are adopting the practice of settling claims and renewing policies using this new age medium. Most players in the insurance business are reporting a good customer response following the introduction of the SMS facility.
Source: http://www.economictimes.com/

Local language voice portal adds value to telecom firm
The Indian telecom firm Tata Teleservices has launched Telugu (a south Indian langauge) Voice Station which is offering more than 1,000 voice clips in the form of ring tones, dialogues, songs, astrological predictions and jokes in local language.

Although the company is already running such voice portals in English and Hindi language, this is the first time they created a local language portal. The service is charged on the basis of 10 paise/minute for prepaid users and on the basis of Rs 6/minute for others.
Source: http://www.businessstandard.com