ICT for People

23.01.2007 Indian public sector majors BSNL and MTNL have promised to deliver a New Year gift to those subscribing to their internet services. Bandwidth on entry level ADSL broadband connections provided through telephone lines are to be raised from 256 kbps to 2 Mbps at no extra cost to the customer.

09.01.2007 It is widely believed that,if used appropriately, information and communications technology (ICT) are effective tools in the fight against poverty. As India's poverty is deepening and its ICT industry booming, there are many projects underway that are using ICT to reduce poverty and promote good governance.

29.11.2006 Leaders from Government, the private sector, science and technology, media, entertainment and sports from around the world will gather at the United Nations to convey the message that the global community is one family with common values.

28.11.2006 Community radio is set to move from the margins to the centre with the Union
Government's decision to legitimise it, said Ashish Sen, director of voices.
According to the policy guidelines, non-governmental organisations and other non-profit organisations will be able to apply for community radio licences.

20.11.2006 Mumbai tops eight internet using metros with 3.26 million total users and 2.6 active users, Delhi is second with 2.66 total users and 1.80 million active users, while in the least is Ahmedabad.

26.10.2006 The vital role played by communication in development topped the agenda of a United Nations-backed the First World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD) that opened today, with a warning that rapid advance in technology risked widening the gap between those with access to cell phones and the Internet and the 1 billion of the world’s population without.

23.10.2006 Microsoft India has entered into a partnership with Hughes to create a self-sustaining IT infrastructure in rural areas by deploying broadband enabled ICT kiosks in about 200 towns and villages across the country.

18.10.2006 Technology can be dangerous for the marginalised and the oppressed, if viewed only within a monochromatic perspective of business plans and financial returns. Micro credit is an area that faces a clear threat. Presently, thrift Self Help Groups provide credit to themselves at a ‘reasonable' Rs. 2 per Rs. 100 or 24%.

18.08.2006 From the Simputer to the $ 100 laptop for children, there have been many innovations that have attempted to bridge the digital divide. But these have created a divide of their own, with one group of technologists calling it the “ultimate solution” and another dismissing it as “the scam of the century”

11.08.2006 Right to information Act, 2005 has come in to force in India. With its legislation, it is said that Indian citizen has now the right to "demand information" if desired and every public authority is liable to share information.

07.08.2006 The Commonwealth has launched a new initiative to take information technology to underdeveloped countries that need it most. The initiative 'Commonwealth Connects' aims to bridge the digital divide that leaves large numbers of people in many vulnerable Commonwealth countries cut off from the information flow.

04.08.2006 A new Commonwealth initiative to bridge the deepening digital divide across its member countries was unveiled by Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, UK.Its project manager, Naimur Rahman of OneWorld South Asia, said: "Improving connectivity for individuals and communities, which in turn may provide access to this critical transformational information, is the key focus for any ICT for development initiative.

18.07.2006 International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has published a book on - Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Poverty Reduction: The Potential of Telecommunications.Drawing upon a series of case studies exploring the relationship between telecommunications and development in Bangladesh, China, India, Ghana, Laos, Peru, and East Africa, editors Joachim von Braun and Maximo Torero seek to answer critical questions that can help guide policymakers on how information technology affects the development of low-income countries.

30.05.2006 If equity, justice, redressal are not built into our ICT strategies, all we will have accomplished is to upgrade our worlds, not change them. A person form Andhra spoke to Samuha members of how a person with a disability had accessed financial assistance through the government's ICT kiosks, and how, immediately after, a Panchayat official had come up to this person, and had asked him to ‘deposit' the funds with him.

25.05.2006 ICT have started to make their presence felt in Rural India. The farmers and farm-families are browsing the net and getting general, technical and marketing information from the Information kiosks in over 26000 villages across the country.

19.05.2006 The information technology industry wants the Government to draw lessons from the townships created in the 1950s for the manufacturing sector and replicate the success by establishing integrated knowledge townships for it.

11.05.2006 The Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and the telecom department on a PIL describing the communication towers — put up at prominent locations by mobile phone service providers — as health hazards, because they emit electromagnetic radiation.

19.04.2006 Software giant Microsoft said that it would launch the latest version of its Office software suite by the end of the year and the company's India development centre has made a significant contribution to it.

14.04.2006 China has begun publishing government tenders on dgMarket.com, the leading independent website aggregating government procurement information from 150 countries. dgMarket, created by the Development Gateway Foundation, aims to increase access to government contracting and bring down government procurement costs through greater competition.

08.04.2006 A local radio station run at Mansoorpur village, Bihar has gone off air, courtesy swift action of the local administration in Bihar. The radio station named ""Radio Raghav FM Mansoorpur 1 channel" was run by Raghav Mahto, a local electrician from his small shop. It was a source of joy for the local populace but unfortunately violated the law of the land.