Governance2.Org

Livemint: The shift to e-filing of statutory documents such as annual returns and balance sheets by companies with a minimum authorized capital of Rs1 crore is expected to see a fresh spurt in compliance in India, potentially bringing it on par with the standards prevalent in developed economies of Singapore and the UK.
E-filing was introduced by the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) in May 2006.
“While we saw a compliance level of 50% among such companies for returns filed for year ended March 2005, this figure rose to around 70% for the year ended March 2006 and we are expecting this to rise to 90% for the year ended March 2007,” according to a senior MCA official who did not wish to be identified. He was speaking on the sidelines of a national conclave on corporate governance organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry. The average compliance rate, including all public firms, is much lower at 45%. Read on …

Times of India:  Vijaya S Mulay, a retired municipal nurse, filed a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act which sought to track the movement (or non-movement) of papers pertaining to her retirement dues. The papers had been pending with the administrative department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for more than a year.
The RTI response revealed the names of the officials who ’sat’ on the file for months together. The format also gave a detailed reply which showed where the papers got stuck and for how many days. Following her RTI query, the civic authorities were forced to take action against the errant officials and penalise two BMC employees for the delay.
Read on …

Reuters: State restrictions on use of the Internet have spread to more than 20 countries that use catch-all and contradictory rules to help keep people off line and stifle feared political opposition, a new report says.
In “Governing the Internet”, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) presented case studies of Web censorship in Kazakhstan and Georgia and referred to similar findings in nations from China to Iran, Sudan and Belarus.
“Recent moves against free speech on the Internet in a number of countries have provided a bitter reminder of the ease with which some regimes, democracies and dictatorships alike, seek to suppress speech that they disapprove of, dislike, or simply fear,” the report by the 56-nation OSCE said.
Download the report [pdf]

Business Standard: Close on the heels of Pune and Baramati (a small city in Maharashtra), India’s infotech capital, Bangalore, too will provide seamless wireless connectivity as a part of its Rs 800 crore “Unwire Bangalore” project.
Even as Delhi has been planning to make the city “wireless”, the Karnataka government has reportedly given the go-ahead to all the five bidding consortia to roll out the services in a phased manner. Three of the bidders have started deploying the required infrastructure and services will be rolled out this year.
Conceptualised on a build, operate and own model, the Unwire Bangalore project aims at creating an infrastructure network that will provide wireless Internet connection to the entire city using world interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) and Wi-Fi technologies. The project is expected to cover 679 square kilometres of the city in a phased manner. Read on …

Business Standard: Experts say that the benefits of such a tie-up include a lower attrition rate, besides being a part of corporate social responsibility of companies.
Sanvi Aanwar, a resident of Veeratpur village in Punjab, was able to earn Rs 6,000 a month with incentives, after she was employed by Tata group’s E2E SerWiz Solutions Limited in Mohali.
Enrolling in NGO Tarahaat’s, training programme enabled the young girl along with two friends from her village to gain employment to sustain their families. NGOs such as Tarahaat are now taking up initiatives to provide training programmes in rural areas to provide rural youth with a better chance to be employable in call centres.
Differentiating between their work and those of the rural BPOs, Rakesh Khanna, member Tarahaat, said “We train the rural youth for employment in the BPOs, we do not set up BPOs.”
In another pilot project, Delhi-based BPO, Intouch Solutions, has collaborated with NGOs like Plan and Prospect Education to train youth. Twelve youth from the resettlement colonies of Badarpur and Sangam Vihar are beneficiaries of this programme. Read on …

Economic Times: Former President A P J Abdul Kalam has said that all activities under Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) should focus on employment generation.
Addressing a special consultation meeting on ‘PURA as a model of sustainable rural development’, he said employment generation alone could address the problem regarding upliftment of over 220 million people.
Agriculture had been growing at a rate of 1.6 per cent. “If we have to uplift poor and provide them quality life, agriculture sector should grow at least by four per cent a year,” he said. Read on …

T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan, writes in Business Standard about the state of the Indian government, and presents his case as to why the Indian Government is dozing.

If even three ordinary people (let alone ministers) don’t like something and shout their protest loudly enough, the idea is dropped. Nothing moves forward so as the world moves ahead, we get left behind.
This approach to consensual governance has had three effects, at the very least. First, the undeserving continue to get what they want. You can apply this test yourself and make a list.
Second, conversely, the deserving are being denied what they need. It doesn’t matter which group. If you are deserving of something, you won’t get it. Go on, make a list and see.
And, third, as a result, the majority is getting mighty peeved with a government that does absolutely nothing at all, good or bad. Indeed, this must be the only government—if one can dignify it by that name—of this kind in the world. It just floats along smilingly.

Read on …

Economic Times: In a country of over a billion people, only 31.5 million people pay taxes, and this is after the number of taxpayers has grown by nearly 11 percent between March 2002 and March 2006. The Directorate of Income Tax (Systems) has said that a total of 54 million Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) had been allotted till July 5, 2007.
PAN numbers are also needed to open a bank account, pay income tax, purchase and sell shares and securities, purchase movable property that needs registration, apply for visas and passports or bank loan and to file tax returns. Read on …

Reuters – A nonprofit group that designs low-cost computers for poor children may start selling $350 laptops on the commercial market by Christmas, an executive said on Monday.
The One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s chief technology officer, Mary Lou Jepsen, said the computer could sell initially for about $350, or twice its production cost, although the group is also considering a higher price tag.
Although the green-and-white XO was designed for elementary school children in poor countries, analysts say that some of the features make it attractive to kids in wealthier countries as well as adults.
The foundation has kept its costs down by developing its own technology, including the display, and using a relatively inexpensive microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. It also uses free Linux software, saving the cost of paying to use Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Read on …

Livemint: The government launched a facility for e-filing of patent and trademark applications on 20 July 2007 to expedite the process of securing exclusive rights over a product or trading symbol. This facility has been made available on PatentOffice.nic.in
“With the launch of e-filing facilities, applicants can file their patent and trademark applications at their convenience through the Internet. Payments can also be made through authorised bankers,” commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said.
As of now five lakh trademarks have been registered in the country and efforts are being taken to ensure the backlog of applications is cleared promptly, secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Ajay Dua said.
Last year, 29,000 patent application were filed in the country, of which 8,000 were approved, he added.
Dua said the number of patents in the country increased by over 600 % from 1999-2000, when less than 5,000 applications were filed. Read on …